UPDATE: Zeneah Helgason has been found.
A 13-year-old Victoria girl is missing during a stay at her grandmother’s home in Shawnigan Lake.
Zeneah Helgason was last seen at roughly 8:45 p.m. Tuesday in Mill Bay.
“We searched everywhere with no luck and I just want her home and safe,” her mother Emily Hawkins posted to Facebook. “Police are looking for her. They have put our a missing persons report for the entire island and no one can find her or has seen her since about 8:45.”
Helgason’s worried mother and grandmother and a family friend were up all night searching for the teen to no avail.
A follow-up interview with Hawkins confirmed it’s generally out of character for her daughter to be out of touch with her mom but she has been “acting out” lately, as she splits time between her mom’s home in Victoria and her Grandmother’s in Shawnigan Lake.
“This is all very new. She’s young and angry at the world right now,” Hawkins noted. “The last someone saw her she was at the highway in Mill Bay so I’m worried she’s hitchhiked.”
Helgason is five-foot-five and has dark hair, often in a pony tail. She was last seen wearing jeans and a gray Thrasher hoodie with a black backpack, and wearing white, high-top Vans shoes.
“We are just so worried about her and want her home,” Hawkins said. “We have always tried giving her everything.”
Those with information about the missing teen are encouraged to contact the Shawnigan Lake RCMP at 250-743-5514 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
