Chicago Woman Found After Going Missing While Traveling in Japan

A Chicago woman missing for 10 days while traveling in Japan has been found, her sister announced on Facebook Wednesday night. 

“We’re relieved to share that we’ve obtained our beloved daughter, sister and cousin Kandace Schipper’s location,” Nicole Willea, Schipper’s sister, wrote in the post. 

“Thank you to everyone who helped us spread the word. We’re grateful for every email, call, and share and are now focused on bringing her home safely,” Willea said. 

Schipper, 29, arrived in Tokyo on May 8 but her family lost contact with her on June 4, her sister wrote in a previous Facebook post. 

"She was communicating every day from Tokyo to family and friends but has not been reachable in 9 days,” her sister Nicole Willea wrote on Facebook Tuesday.

Adam Willea, Schipper’s brother-in-law, told WGNTV: “I mean text, phone calls, pictures, updates, Instagram posts. And then it all abruptly ended on June 4th.”

Schipper was traveling with 27-year-old Luis Torres, the news station reports.

Her last known location was on June 5 in Tokyo, in the Shibuya City area, she wrote.

Nicole Willea previously wrote on Facebook that the family had reached out to the Chicago Police Department and the U.S. Embassy in Japan. 

She also had asked the public for help in the search for her sister.

“After going through this process, we’re overwhelmed by the kindness of so many strangers. From Chicago to Tokyo, we were met with so much support and eagerness to help us find our loved one and have empathy for anyone seeking missing family members,” Willea wrote. 

“It’s a complicated process trying to find information and it wouldn’t have been possible for us without the generosity of so many.”

Willea did not share any further details on her sister or her condition. 

Nicole Willea and Adam Willea did not respond to a request for comment from The Messenger on Thursday morning. 

Schipper’s disappearance came after the family of Pattie Wu-Murad, the Connecticut woman who vanished in the Japanese wilderness while hiking on April 10, told The Messenger they suspended the search for the missing mother after two months with no clues.