The father of a Whitehorse woman who’s been missing for two weeks now says he’s desperate for any leads on the whereabouts of his daughter and just wants to know that she’s okay.
Chris Moir said he’s lost count of how many missing person posters featuring photos and a description of his daughter Ayla Sanders he’s printed out and posted around the city at this point.
Sanders, who also goes by “Ellah,” was last seen leaving her apartment near Third Avenue and Black Street on foot on April 17.
The five-foot-eight-inch-tall, 108-pound 28-year-old with brown hair and blue eyes who wears glasses hasn’t been heard from since.
“I want to hit every place I can,” Moir said of the posters on April 30. “I’m almost at the point I’m going to … just go down a street and do every light post and just plaster them everywhere.”
Moir said he last saw his daughter a few days before she disappeared; he had been standing by the courthouse on Second Avenue and waved when he saw her walking on the other side of the street.
“She said, ‘Oh wait right there, I’ll be there right away!’ And she used the crosswalk even though no cars were there — that’s my daughter — she used the crosswalk even though no cars were coming, now that I think about it, and she came up and she gave me to longest hug I’ve had from her in years,” Moir said.
“(It was) a real hug, a thick hug, a strong hug. We hugged each other for awhile and she told me that she loves very, very much.”
Moir said he and Sanders hadn’t been on the best terms over the past few years, and the moment gave him hope that they could begin to repair their relationship.
The Yukon RCMP put out a “missing woman” notice on April 20.
Moir began his own search and postering campaign shortly after.
He said he and his wife have gone to Staples multiple times to buy refill cartridges for his printer “at a hundred bucks a pop,” and over the last few days, he’s only been printing off posters in sets of 50 or 100 “just to give the printer a break” and that the room is “starting to stink with ink.”
“I have no idea how many posters I’ve printed off,” he said.
With the help of friends, he’s put posters around downtown and Takhini, and friends in Edmonton and Calgary have also been putting up posters too.
“Maybe she left, or maybe she’s holed up somewhere in town, I don’t know,” he said, adding that while Facebook posts about his daughter’s disappearance have received hundreds of shares and comments, “there’s been nothing substantial, no confirmed sightings … The trail is cold.”
“Maybe if I keep putting those up, something will happen,” he said of the posters.
“I’m at the end of my ropes … I’m not the same guy anymore.”
Asked what he would want his daughter to know right now, Moir’s reply was simple.
“I would want her to know that there are so many people, family and friends that are worried sick about her being missing and that she is very loved for,” he said. “People care about her, people love her, especially me.”
Anyone with information about Sanders’ whereabouts is asked to call the Whitehorse RCMP at 867-667-5555.
Contact Jackie Hong at jackie.hong@yukon-news.com