According to a GoFundMe Page set up to help locate Gakwa, she was last seen by her family on Feb. 24, 2022, on a video call. Loved ones believe she moved to Gillette, Wyoming, from Boise, Idaho, to be her boyfriend at the time.

“Although she was very independent, her family and friends became very concerned after not hearing from her and unusual responses to attempts to contact her,” a statement from the GoFundMe reads.

Christopher decided to report her missing after receiving text message replies from her phone that weren’t in her native tongue.

“Before I went to bed, I just decided to text her, ‘Hey, how are you doing? It’s been a while. I haven’t talked to you. How is everything? How is school?'” he tells KTVB 7.

“She texts me back, but everything was in English,” Christopher says. “She said she was good and that school was going well. And that she was thinking about changing her number. And that didn’t make any sense.”

None of that made sense because she usually responded to his texts in Swahili, and changing her number would be odd since they are all on a family plan.

Irene Gakwa