Family and fellow students search for missing student Luo Shengmen
The family of the missing Chinese master’s student Luo Shengmen has come to the Netherlands to help with the search for Luo, who has been missing since 23 February. Fellow students are in shock. For a update on this report see the bottom of this article.
Luo’s uncle Jian Fan has been in Amsterdam over the past few days to help the police and fellow students with the search for Luo, a master’s student of Logic at the Faculty of Science. So far, no one has any idea where he might have gone. According to a flyer, he was last seen on the evening of Sunday 23 February in a supermarket near Poeldijkstraat, a complex for international students run by the De Key housing association. The Integral Security department of the UvA formally reported the disappearance to the police on 1 March.
Humour and passion
Qian Chen, a PhD student at the Institute of Logic, Language and Computation at Science Park, had been a teaching assistant on the course in recent months and also taught Luo Shengmen. He knew him as “a nice guy with a sense of humour, passionate about music and his studies”. He is very surprised that Luo would have left just like that or gone abroad.
“I don’t think it’s like him to just disappear, I don’t think he had any mental problems.” According to Qian, the disappeared student’s uncle has since left the Netherlands. “Maybe his mother will come, but it’s difficult to get a visa.” He does not know why Luo’s uncle had a visa. The uncle has an American telephone number, but has not yet responded to a request for contact.
Flyers
Students have now distributed flyers in the city. The flyers state that the missing person is a 23-year-old, 1.77-metre-tall student wearing glasses with long, straight hair that reaches his shoulders. The flyer also lists several email addresses in China and a telephone number for the Dutch police investigation team. The team tells Folia by telephone on Monday morning that they visited Luo’s student room and took ‘items’ for further investigation.
Eleven o’clock at night
Just before his disappearance, Luo was seen by a certain Qifan, a communications science student who also lives in the complex on Poeldijkstraat. On Saturday 22 February, they studied together in the complex’s communal study room between 4 and 11 p.m. Qifan: “I left at eleven. Luo asked me if I would study with him again on Sunday. That was the case. Then I said: “Okay, we’ll see each other tomorrow then.” He replied: “Okay, see you tomorrow.”
The next day, which was Sunday the 23rd, Qifan went to the study room at the agreed time, but Luo was not there. “I thought he might have already left because I was late. Besides, there were no study places available. I sent him a message, but there was no reply.”
‘Caretaker’
According to Qifan, the students in the complex have a “caretaker” who also has the key to the rooms. She was in the room with him. “Luo’s passport, mobile phone and laptop were among the things found there.” So it seems impossible that Luo has left the country. Qifan: “I am really shocked that he just disappeared. At least he behaved very normally that Saturday and he is not the kind of person to just disappear like that.”
Fellow students and the family have now set up a WhatsApp group via WeChat to keep each other informed. The police are investigating the case.
Update March 11: Luo’s uncle has since contacted Folia and confirmed that he and “three students” had been in Luo’s room. “There we found a laptop, an iPad, a hard drive, a cell phone, his passport, six bank cards and 700 Chinese renminbi (RMB).’ This is the Chinese currency and the equivalent of €91. The uncle adds that the police had already been to the student room “twice before our visit”.
