The family of a missing B.C. woman is pleading with the public to help find her after she vanished from a hospital nearly a week ago.
Rebecca Harbowy, 36, of Maple Ridge was last seen in the early morning of Nov. 23 leaving Ridge Meadows Hospital on foot. The family believes she walked south on Laity Street towards River Road.
Her sister, Rachel Bertoia, is hoping by speaking out the family can get some answers.
“It’s pretty hard waking up each day and there’s no news,” she says. “There’s no sighting … nothing to give us a lead on anything."
Bertoia explains that her sister has an addiction to drugs and made the decision to detox at her house that day. Harbowy and her boyfriend are living in her mother’s house.
“Her and my mom have a very intertwined relationship; they talk on the phone all the time,” she tells Glacier Media.
While trying to detox, it was decided Harbowy needed medical attention and an ambulance was called. Bertoia says her sister willingly went to the hospital at 5 p.m. on Nov. 22.
Her mother stayed at the hospital until about midnight and decided to go home. Then, at about 1:20 a.m., Harbowy left the hospital and has not been seen since.
“She’s never gone missing,” says Bertoia. “She is always home.”
Harbowy also has two cats she cares for that live in the house and she has not gone a day without speaking to her mother.
“She would not leave Maple Ridge,” says Bertoia. “She was not dressed for winter."
Harbowy was last seen wearing a grey sweater with ‘Puma’ spelt in white letters, black sweatpants and black Nike shoes. She has a few distinct tattoos on her neck and hand.
Her family believes she could be curled up hiding, or worse, kidnapped.
“People don’t just vanish,” says Bertoia. “We are still looking and we would love her home.”
She is hoping people in the area can check their surveillance footage or physically check their properties as she went missing from a residential area.
Ridge Meadows RCMP Cpl. Julie Klaussner says the investigation is active and ongoing.
Bertoia says if her sister is reading this she wants her to know her family loves her.
“You are loved, you’re wanted and we just want you home safely,” she says.
Anyone with information about Harbowy's whereabouts is asked to contact Ridge Meadows RCMP at 604-463-6251 and reference file number 2023-23402.
