Sze Wan "Sally" Cheong was a young woman who vanished in 2008. Her family believe that she may have run away, and could still be alive.
Background[]
Sally was born in 1985, to parents Wa and Kim Cheong. She lived in a suburban Melbourne house with her parents, grandparents and four younger siblings: Helen, Andrew, Wendy and Anna. According to Helen, they had a relatively traditional upbringing and were expected to respect their elders, study hard and help with the family business. Sally attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Burwood before studying computer science. However, she was working at her parent's Asian wholesale food business at the time of her disappearance, as she could not find employment in the computer science field.
Sally spent a year studying in Beijing, China and only returned in early 2008. While abroad, Sally improved her Chinese and made new friends. Afterwards, she expressed a desire for more freedom, which was considered out of character for her. According to Helen, she felt like Sally had changed a lot when she returned.
In a blog post, Sally's friend, Catherine Chia, has described her as "a gorgeous girl, with an infectious laugh, and a caring, kindest, most trusting nature", but also expressed fears that she could be too trusting. She was very family-oriented, and often translated and organized things for them.
Shortly before her disappearance, on March 3, 2008, Sally sent an email to a male friend expressing concerns that he would hurt her. She wrote, "Im afraid u gun me down or get angry. "
Case[]
Sally was last seen on April 2, 2008. The previous day, she had played tennis with her family and eaten dinner with them as usual before going to her room. At 10:00 P.M., Wa returned home from a business trip to Adelaide. He ate, then went to Sally's room to give her the keys to the family cargo van at 11:00 P.M. He called her name softly, but she was already asleep and didn't wake up, so he left the keys on her dressing table. Strangely, she usually slept with her bedroom door open, but it was closed that night.
At approximately 3:00 A.M. on April 2, 2008, Wendy, who was 14, was in her bedroom using her computer, when she heard a noise. She assumed it was Kim, so she pretended to be asleep, knowing she would get in trouble for messaging her boyfriend so early in the morning. When Kim didn't come in, Wendy looked through her door, which was slightly ajar, and saw a figure standing outside Helen's room. The figure then moved to stand outside Sally's room. She heard a low male voice saying a word she thought was "Yeah" and assumed it was Sally's boyfriend, who often visited the house in the early morning hours. She then saw Sally walking down from the toilet area. Sally hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Wa woke up at approximately 7:30 A.M. that morning; strangely, he found the keys to his BMW and business premises on the floor outside his room. He assumed Sally had left them there, as she had been the last to drive the vehicle. At 9:00 A.M., Andrew received a call wherein he was told to ask Sally to bring Wa his mobile phone. However, when Andrew couldn't find Sally, he assumed she'd left for work and gave Anna the phone instead. As a result, it didn't become apparent to the Cheongs that Sally was missing until 1:00 P.M. when Helen contacted Sally's boyfriend and realized that neither he nor any of the family could locate her.
The Cheongs contacted authorities that evening, but could not report her missing until the following day, due to a 24-hour policy. While they waited, they searched her room, checked her Facebook account, tried to contact her friends, and drove around the neighborhood looking for her but found nothing. When an investigation began, the house was forensically searched, but no blood or signs of a struggle were uncovered. The friend that she sent an email expressing concerns about his behaviour, and two other men have been ruled out as suspects in her case after passing polygraph tests.
Sally took her wallet, phone, iPod, car keys and a security blanket. According to Helen, taking the blanket was something she didn't normally do. While her family think she may have run away and could still be alive, she has not accessed her bank accounts or phone since her disappearance. She has also failed to make contact with her family or close friends.
Characteristics[]
- Brown hair.
- Brown eyes.
- Tan.
- Slim build.
- Chinese descent.
Gallery[]
