The family of a missing Howard University senior is pleading for the public’s help after the 22-year-old disappeared during what they believed was her normal commute to school.
Esube “Izzy” Wondwossen has been missing since Tuesday, Sept. 15, after her father dropped her off at the Branch Avenue Metro Station around 7 a.m., according to FOX 5 DC. Her father said his daughter appeared happy and in good spirits when he last saw her, and nothing seemed unusual.
But Wondwossen never made it to Howard.
Police say she was later seen leaving the Pentagon Metro Station in Arlington, Virginia. Her sister, Helina Wondwossen, told FOX 5 that another sighting placed her getting off a Metro bus near Reading Avenue and Beauregard Street in Alexandria around 8:25 a.m.
Her family says they have no idea why she would have been in Alexandria.
“She wouldn’t just spend the night somewhere without telling us, and now it’s been four days. I just want to know she’s safe,” Helina told FOX 5. “I just want more information. I want more eyes out there. She wouldn’t do this.”
The family’s concern grew after Wondwossen’s mother, Aida Endrias, discovered that location tracking on her daughter’s phone appeared to have been turned off.
Endrias told the outlet that she is holding onto hope that her daughter left on her own and will be found alive.
“You don’t wish for your daughter to run away, but that’s what I’m wishing right now—that she’s alive. She ran away,” she said. “That she’s not dead somewhere.”
@cb5aca34 Howard University student Izzy Wondwossen has been missing for four days. Please share this and help spread the word#izzywondwossen #missingperson #breakingnews ♬ original sound – cb5aca34
Wondwossen is a senior at Howard University who, according to her sister, had been looking forward to graduating. Helina told NBC Washington that the family wants to see greater urgency surrounding her disappearance, noting that it took several days to determine that Wondwossen had traveled through the Pentagon Metro Station.
Prince George’s County police describe Wondwossen as a Black woman who is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs approximately 110 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and a mole above her left eyebrow.
She was last seen wearing black pants, a black hooded sweatshirt and carrying a Michael Kors tote bag. FOX 5 additionally reports that she was wearing Crocs and a headband.
As the search continues, Wondwossen’s family is asking people throughout the DMV area to keep an eye out for the missing college student and share information that could help bring her home.
Anyone with information about Wondwossen’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Prince George’s County Police Department Missing Persons Unit at 301-772-8970 or [email protected].
