by Nandika Ravi
Kirandeep Chumber says her mother, Neena Chumber Rani, went missing on Feb. 17 from her Ahuntsic-Cartierville home, leaving behind all her belongings.
With more than three weeks gone by and no sign of Rani, Chumber has taken to social media in hopes of finding her mom.
Kirandeep with her mom| Photo provided
“I just want to find her and I just have to keep going,” Chumber said.
“Because if I don’t look for her, no one is going to look for her.”
Chumber believes that her mother dealt with undiagnosed depression and struggled to cope with it for the past several months.
“What happened is she’s been feeling a certain way for a certain period of time now,” she said.
“We saw changes in her, but we didn’t really think much about it because it’s mental health and not a lot of people talk about mental health; especially in brown, our Indian and South-Indian communities, it’s not spoken often.”
Chumber tried to get help, reaching out to their family doctor and several hospitals, but she said she was always put on waiting lists for psychiatric consults and no one was able to offer her the help she needed.
“I was just being tossed from one place to another, when what I really needed was for my mom to get the right help. And if I did, my mom would probably be here today.”
“I wish they had diagnosed her, because honestly maybe today I’d have my mom,” Chumber said.
On the day of her disappearance, Chumber said, her mother left her wallet and phone behind and just got into the car and drove away. Chumber reached out to police when she discovered her mother’s car parked close to their home, with the keys on the seat. Chumber said police identified her mother on video surveillance footage walking into Parc des Bateliers, a park in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville area.
#Disparition
Neena Chumber Rani, 49 ans, a été vue pour la dernière fois dans le secteur d’Ahuntsic-Cartierville. Les enquêteurs ont des raisons de craindre pour sa santé et sa sécurité. Merci de partager.#SPVM ^RM pic.twitter.com/qSknZSFyFJ— Police Montréal (@SPVM) February 18, 2022
Since the day her mother went missing, Chumber has been reaching out to the police for updates on the case, but there have been none so far.
Rani is described as 1.5 metres tall and medium built with long grey-black hair, black eyes and brown skin. She also has a beauty mark on her right eye.
She was last seen wearing a brown, knee-length coat, a dark tuque and brown boots. She speaks English, French and Punjabi and is known to spend time in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Parc-Extension areas.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
Kirandeep with her mom| Photo provided
“I’ve been going out to all the hospitals, handing out flyers, going out all around our communities, the temples, everywhere,” Chumber said.
“I’ve been reaching out on social media, calling the media, and going out to shelters and everywhere I can, her friends, family, everywhere around the world, just to, at some point, have some hope.”
“I don’t know where she is, what she’s doing, and I really miss her. She’s my mom. The last couple of days have been the hardest days of my life.”