“…an American citizen…”
Makes a HUGE difference. Someone has to make a plea to the media to get the media involved. Also, it makes a difference if there is foul play suspected.
Wow, @pizzagirl, that is really terrible, awful, horrible. I had missed your last post on this. I hope your son is doing okay. How traumatic it must have been for him. Have you kept in contact with his parents? What a heartbreaking story.
Reading this thread, I think there should be a ‘hug’ button next to ‘like’ and ‘helpful’
PG, I think I remember that story - that’s how much it bothered me then - that I remember it now. 
How tough for your son.
@fauxmaven - I thought your story sounded familiar - a similar thing happened a year ago here in LA a year ago, this time two teenage girls from Vietnam ages 12 and 17 were involved. They left their tour group at LAX and were seen getting into a white van with a strange man. You can imagine the concern and it was all over the news. @nottelling you might remember the news stories, it was right after the July 4th holiday last year.
Same company, Education First. Turns out, the girls planned it. The parents, when contacted, were not concerned. Apparently, the girls planned to stay here.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-missing-vietnamese-girls-found-20150706-story.html
EF has a huge English language program in my town. I know several people who have worked for them, they are all good people. I did look at the website for the local EF program and I got a laugh at how they describe our area. It definitely was written to appeal to an upscale clientele and to take advantage of the misconception people have about Ca. I don’t know anyone who has hosted students from EF. The students appear to have a lot of freedom and I rarely have seen anyone supervising them. They appear to spend a lot of time shopping and eating out. It appears to me that if someone wanted to come into this country on one of these programs it would be relatively easy to slip away.
I think we have at least 4 language schools. They seem to appeal to many ages and many nationalities. I think for many of the teens it is a holiday in a nice location and a plus they might pick up a better knowledge of the English language. A friend who used to work for a competitor of EF said many of her students came with good written English but poor conversation skills.
I’m almost convinced that her family knew what she was planning on doing. You would think though that someone would want to check if there was anything in her personal belongings that would give police a clue.
I just called EF President of USA Programs, and HE told me to take bag to EF people at college when I pick French girl up. He said there is considerale interviewing process of girl’s family when they sign up.
Of course he will say so!
I don’t know what I can believe about all this.
I agree that there might be clues among the belongings. Are the clothes good? Are they nice for a 16 y o? Do they look like things that are of no value.
FM…maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of CSI…but it it were me…I would NOT go through this girl’s belongings…not even the clothes. I would bag them up…and hand them off to the sponsors.
Speaking of CSI, I’m surprised that local and federal investigators wouldn’t be interested in going through her belongings. Did they?
Deliver the items to the organization and be done with that. It’s not your place to go through her things. Do not touch a thing of hers. Do you have the French girl for one more week or 3?
French girl leaves 8/23. Have not touched her things.
I’m so sorry that you are going through all this. You tried to do something nice and got caught up in something awful. You must be a wreck.
Reading about the lack of concern by the agency makes me suspicious that this isn’t the first student to go missing from one of their programs.
ETA - went back and read the complete article SyrAlum posted. I had missed that it was this same outfit, I wonder how many kids walk away from their tours?
I also heard about several other disappearances from various programs they offer.
When did you hear about the other disappearances from other programs of theirs?
Ok. Let me know if you have any problems spotting us
Ok. " Let me know if you have any problems spotting us."…what? No comprende! The other girl is leaving on WED. She will move to a house with 2 French girls.
Faux, glad she is moving out. You need some time to decompress!