VANCOUVER — The mother of a young woman, who vanished from Victoria two years ago, believes her daughter might be living in the Downtown Eastside or in the Commercial Drive area and is reaching out to Vancouverites for help.

Shelley Fillipoff quit her job as a teacher in Ontario and flew out to Victoria to devote all her time to finding her daughter, 28-year-old Emma Fillipoff, who was last seen outside the Empress Hotel on Nov. 28, 2012.

After spending months in Victoria, and a brief trip home to Ontario, Fillipoff arrived in Vancouver on May 7 after receiving several tips from people claiming to have seen her in various east Vancouver locations.

She thinks Emma has had a psychological breakdown and may have turned to drugs to self-medicate, and she’s desperate to find her and get her some help.

“My goal is just to find her alive, nothing else. Everything else we can work out later.”

She said the last time she spoke to Emma on the phone, just a few days before her disappearance, she was crying and saying “mom I just want to come home.” Fillipoff said she told Emma that she would fly out to Victoria, but the next day Emma called her mother and said she had just had a bad day.

“She was just sounding awful. Her last words to me were ‘don’t come, not today mom’ and I thought I can’t respect that, not this time. I’ve got to come and I flew out but she was already gone.”

She said although Emma has never been diagnosed with a mental health problem, she believes she may have been coping with a psychological disorder without telling anyone.

“I got the impression that she had become quite paranoid, but I have reason to believe that something has happened. She’s called me for help and to come and I did.”

But she arrived on the evening of Nov. 28 and her daughter had already vanished.

On the day she went missing, someone called 911 to say a woman was in severe distress outside the Empress Hotel, said Fillipoff.

“The police arrived and spent around 45 minutes talking to her. They got her name and decided that she wasn’t a threat to herself or anyone else. They released her and no one has seen her since,” she said.

“(The police) claim they are well trained to deal with this, but it’s shocking they released her.”

Emma hasn’t touched the money in her bank account and hasn’t called any of her three siblings or her father in Ontario, all with whom she’s close, said Fillipoff.

“She practically helped raise her younger brother and they worship each other. That she didn’t reach out to him was very telling, and she would never do this to her siblings, and especially not her baby brother. She was always emailing and phoning.”

Determined to get as much help as she can to find Emma, Fillipoff is offering a $25,000 reward for information that might lead investigators and family to her whereabouts, money raised through her community and a line of credit.

Fillipoff now has her best friend staying with her at a hotel and they have been scouring east Vancouver at night, searching single occupancy hotels and shelters, handing out posters and sharing with people the Facebook page created to help find Emma.

She says she’ll stay in Vancouver as long as it takes to find her daughter, but notes that she could be anywhere in North America so she may have to search elsewhere if she receives any more solid leads.

Anyone with information about Emma is asked to contact her family at fillipoff@hotmail.com or call 911 or the local police.

ticrawford@vancouversun.com