india

Updated: Nov 09, 2019 01:42 IST

Panaji: A 20-year-old US student has gone missing from Anjuna village in Goa where she was last seen on Thursday, November 7, prompting her family back home to launch a Facebook campaign for her.

Elizabeth M Mann, a University of Minnesota Twin Cities student, was last seen at around 5AM on Thursday.

The owner of the hostel where Mann was staying has filed a missing complaint with the Anjuna Police.

The family has also sought help from local authorities and those who may have known her whereabouts, including the managers at Bunkd Hostels where she was staying.

“We have flashed the message across the state in the hope that someone will come forward with leads,” Anjuna police station inspector Suraj Gauns said.

Mann’s family panicked when they didn’t hear from her for over 24 hours. She also left her personal belongings, including her phone, back at the hostel.

A message on the Facebook page set up for locating Mann reads, “Elizabeth has been travelling on her own, anticipating attending a yoga retreat. The authorities are also investigating a man that has been targeting her. We don’t know if she is on her own, or was taken by this man.”

“She could have gone out to meet friends, but we are taking no chances, a team has been sent to investigate,” a police official said.

The US Consulate has also been notified. Anjuna is popular with backpackers and is dotted with hostels, guest houses and other low density properties and is also a popular haunt for late-night parties.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau data, crime against foreigners has shown a mixed trend with the state witnessing 30 cases of crimes against foreigners in 2015, which reduced to 22 in 2016 before rising up to 28 in the year 2017, the last year for which statistics have been made available by the National Crime Records Bureau.

Crimes against foreigners make up 5.7 of the total crimes in Goa.

Despite its small size Goa witnesses crimes against foreigners on par with larger states. In 2017, the 28 crimes against foreigners that Goa witnessed was fifth overall behind Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP and Karnataka and ahead of states like Rajasthan and Kerala which also witness a lot of foreign tourists visiting, according to NRCB.