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Marshal Iwaasa was last seen by his family on November 17 (Photos supplied by Alexis Iwaasa)

Police, family and friends continue search for missing man

Dec 4, 2019 | 12:32 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A 26-year-old Alberta man remains missing and the search for him continues.

According to Calgary Police, Marshal Iwaasa was last seen by his family in Lethbridge on November 17. Police say Iwaasa told his family he was heading to Calgary. He has not been seen since.

On November 25, a burned-out vehicle was found by Pemberton RCMP in British Columbia. Calgary Police say the vehicle is believed to belong to Iwaasa. When his family were notified of the found vehicle, they reported Iwaasa as missing.

Iwaasa is described as 5-foot-11, about 170 pounds with brown eyes, shoulder-length brown hair (usually worn tied back) and a mustache. When he was last seen, he was wearing a green hoody, a grey toque, red hi-top shoes and black pants.

His truck is described as a dark blue 2009 GMC Sierra with Alberta plates BLL 1099.

LOCAL EFFORT

A public Facebook group has been started as part of the effort to find Iwaasa.

FIND MARSHAL IWAASA has over 4,000 members and has seen posts from across the Southern Alberta community and beyond.

Posters bearing Iwaasa’s photo and information have been set up in areas of Lethbridge and Pemberton.

Some community members have also resorted to changing their Facebook profile photos to a missing person image of the 26-year-old.

Iwaasa’s cousin, Alexis, told Lethbridge News Now that the support has been heartwarming.

“With today’s social media, it’s been great. We’ve seen it [news of Marshal’s disappearance] everywhere from Facebook, Instagram, VSCO, Snapchat, everybody is posting about it trying to spread awareness,” she said.

She confirmed that her cousin is from Lethbridge and is studying at SAIT in Calgary.

“Just the last about year and a half he’s been going to SAIT taking some schooling there, but he usually did try to come back down to Lethbridge every weekend or so whenever he had the availability. Our family is really close so whenever we had big dinners or like a special occasion, everybody was always there.”

She said her family is thankful to everyone who has helped in the search effort for Marshal.

“A lot of people have taken over in the [Facebook] group chat giving us all these different types of ideas and resources. Everybody’s just been super helpful and we’re so thankful for the community that we live in and everybody’s help with everything right now,” she remarked.

“We had a couple of people who had contacted hotels that they worked for and the hotels have now put out messages worldwide with his poster and some information regarding his disappearance as well.”

Anyone with information about Iwaasa’s disappearance or whereabouts is asked to contact Pemberton RCMP at (604) 894-6634 or the Calgary Police Service at (403) 266-1234.