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Saunders was reported missing by her family on Feb. 17.

“My family now is at the point where we’re expecting the worst,” said an emotional Edmund Saunders, her brother, in an interview Wednesday night.

“We just want to get her home. We know she’s not OK; she’s not well. She wouldn’t go this long without talking to her Dad. We just want to know where she is and bring her home.”

Ms. Saunders’ sister, Delilah Terriak, meanwhile, has headed a social media campaign to marshal a nationwide search.

“She is a proud Inuk whose thesis topic is on missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada, so she knows better than to just disappear like this,” Ms. Terriak said in a Facebook message.

“My heart is breaking more and more as time passes and my sister is the one who encourages and inspires me to persevere.”

Ms. Saunders, originally from Hopedale, N.L., had taken two roommates into her Halifax high-rise apartment on Cowie Hill Road to help cover her school expenses, said Mr. Saunders. He is not sure if she met the renters on Kijiji, an online advertising site, or was introduced to them by her boyfriend.

“She was having a hard time getting her rent from them. It’s been a while since they paid her,” said Mr. Saunders.

“She went to get her rent Thursday and said if they didn’t have it she’ll tell them they have to leave. When she got there they weren’t home. She phoned them, apparently, and told them they had to leave.”

Video surveillance from the apartment shows her leaving the apartment on Thursday, Feb. 13, alone. It does not appear she was followed, said Mr. Saunders.