Who is Ani Ashekian and what happened to her while staying in a hotel at the Chungking Mansions?
Ashekian flew from Toronto to Beijing on Friday, October 24, 2008 and was scheduled return via India on December 15 but she has not been seen since November 10 in Hong Kong. Authorities on the case have appealed for public assistance. Ashekian’s passport indicates that she entered Hong Kong on November 9 and that she has not left Hong Kong. Ani was last seen in Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui on the morning of November 10. Hong Kong Police confirmed via CCTV footage that a cash withdrawal (HK$3000/CAD$470) was made by Ani just after midnight on November 10 in the Causeway Bay MTR station. Records show no further transactions on her bank accounts since that date. On 10 November, she called her sister and sent a text with a birthday message for her niece. Family and friends who heard from her regularly until then have had no contact since. The Foreign Affairs Department was contacted and Canadian authorities made a report to the Hong Kong Police on December 9, who made a public appea
31-year-old Canadian tourist Ani Ashekian from Hong Kong, and more specifically Chungking Mansions. What’s more is that Ani’s last sighting was on November 10, 2008, just two days before I arrived in Hong Kong and visited Chungking Mansions myself. In the details the stories are quite different. Ani Ashekian was a veteran traveler who enjoyed solo journeys from Toronto, Canada. She came to Hong Kong after visiting mainland China and stayed in a hotel at the Chungking Mansions. But the crossroads of fiction and reality still leaves a pit in my stomach. Nobody really gets hurt or vanishes for good in fiction. But it’s been almost a year now and nobody has heard from Ani. Her passport and credit cards have not been used. The very last sighting of her is on November 10 on an ATM camera in Causeway Bay across the harbor from Kowloon. The very last communication is a text she sent to her niece in Toronto on the same day. She offered Happy Birthday wishes. Sources:
