The rain did not stop nearly 100 people from showing up to help search for a missing 18-year-old Surrey teen.
Joseph Maku was last seen in the 13000-block of 96th Avenue on Tuesday, Oct. 22. He is described as Black, six-foot-five and 200 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes and has dental braces. Surrey RCMP says he is believed to be wearing a black hoodie with GAP written on the front, black North Delta Huskies basketball shorts, and black and white basketball shoes with reverse swoosh symbol.
On Saturday (Nov. 9), Joseph's older sister, Brenda Maku, asked people to meet at 11 a.m. in Holland Park to help search for Joseph. From there, they broke into groups and searched areas from downtown Vancouver to Newton. They plan to return to the same location next Saturday at 11 a.m.
With tears streaming down her face, Joseph's mother, Rose Juan, asked Joseph to return home. "I miss you so much," Rose said.
Rose and her husband came to Canada over two decades from Sudan. "My husband passed away when Joseph was two years old," Rose said. "My husband had cancer, and I raised all the five children by myself. Joseph make me happy, he always make me smile whenever I'm sad, whenever things go down, Joseph will always make sure I smile. I raise him up as a good boy."
"I came to this country to have opportunity, but I lost my husband and now my son is missing. What am I supposed to do at this moment?"
"These past two weeks, I can't eat, I can't sleep, I have not do anything, please anybody out there if you see my son please bring him home to me. I want to see him. I want to hug him," Rose said.
The search on Saturday focused on areas that Joseph would frequent and areas he loved- like by the water.
Cardinal Maku, one of Joseph's older brothers, thanked everyone who came out to help search and put up missing person posters.
"It very much means a lot to me and to our family that we do go out there and we do end up searching for him. As long as we keep spreading the word and until he comes home and then we can show him all the people that have come out to help us," Cardinal said.
In a news release Friday (Nov. 8) Surrey RCMP released more information surrounding the disappearance of Maku.
"The Surrey RCMP Missing Persons Unit has conduct of the investigation and investigators have determined that Joseph boarded a number of transit buses that day between 3:50 pm and 6:30 pm, mainly between 120 Street and King George Boulevard," reads the release.
Brenda said, "The last bus he took was at 6:26pm, he took the 319 towards Newton exchange."
Police told the family they could not find CCTV footage from when Joseph got on the bus "until the end of the route."
"So we're hoping today we can find some sort of clues that let us know where Joseph is, and hopefully someone has seen him somewhere because he's six foot five and he's just about 200 pounds, he's hard to miss," Brenda said.
Brenda added that it was out of character for Joseph to get on and off the bus so many times.
"There is one part of the route where he goes from one bus to another in the span of a minute. So we're trying to figure out what exactly could have caused that and what could have happened, but this is definitely not something normal for Joseph."
"Joseph is the type to go to school, come home, go to work, come home, go to church, come home. So the fact that he took the route in all those different areas was definitely very strange," Brenda added.
For more information and updates, visit the Missing Person: Joseph Maku Facebook group.
Joseph's family asks that if you see him, you do not approach him but do not lose sight of him. Immediately call the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502, quote file 2024-157805, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or visit solvecrime.ca.
