‘We just want to know what’s going on’: Family of Toronto-area man missing in Greece for more than a month seeks answers

August 14, 2024 Canuck

Relatives of a Mississauga man say they’re “desperate for answers” after their loved one went missing in Greece more than a month ago.

Filip Ziaja, 38, last communicated with his family and his employer, Leap Tools, on July 12, his sister-in-law Erika Campos told CP24.com.

He was supposed to go hiking the following day on Mount Olympus, she said, but hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

An avid traveller and a self-described digital nomad, Campos said that Ziaja left Canada for Greece on July 7 to work remotely and do some outdoor tourist activities. Her brother-in-law, she said, was expected to return to Canada in September after spending a few weeks in Poland.

“He was living his best life then he just went missing out of thin air,” Campos said of her brother-in-law, who started working and travelling abroad in earnest after the pandemic.

“(Filip) was so happy about this trip.”

Campos said that while Ziaja wasn’t one to post often on social media and didn’t communicate with them on a daily basis, he reached out to his family about once a week and let them know what he was up to. She added that it’s “extremely uncharacteristic” of her brother-in-law to be incommunicado for several weeks.

She said they started growing concerned when Ziaja hadn’t contacted them on July 20 to wish her one-year-old son, his only nephew, a happy birthday.

His family’s fears were further confirmed when they received a call from his employer on July 26 advising them that he hadn’t logged on to his work computer for two weeks.

“That’s when we knew something was really wrong,” Campos said.

That day, Ziaja’s family started contacting Canadian and Greek authorities to advise them of his disappearance.

Mississauga resident Filip Ziaja, 38, last communicated with his family and employer on July 12. He travelled to Greece on July 7 and was expected to return to Canada in September (Supplied photo)

Global Affairs Canada (GAC) has confirmed to CP24.com that it is “aware of a Canadian who is missing in Greece.”

“Consular officials are in touch with the family to provide assistance. Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed,” GAC said.

Ziaja’s family has also been in contact with police in Greece. His sister-in-law said that they searched the Airbnb in Thessaloniki where Ziaja had been staying and located all of his belongings, except for his cell phone and the items he was wearing and carrying the day he disappeared. The unit is now being held by Hellenic Police Services (HPS), she said.

A missing person alert was also issued in Greece in the days following Ziaja’s disappearance, she said, which resulted in a few possible sightings of him, but nothing concrete has come out of that.

CP24.com has reached out to HPS for comment, but we have not yet heard back.

“We just worry something might have happened to him, that he might have been robbed, maybe some kind of trauma happened to him that is affecting his ability to seek help,” said Campos, adding they also worry that Ziaja might have fallen victim to a recent string of tourist disappearances in Greece.

“It’s been so long. It’s been a month since Filip went missing. (…) We just want to know what is going on.”

Global Affairs Canada would not say if they believe that Ziaja’s diappearance is connected to the missing tourists situation in Greece and deferred the matter to Greek authorities to comment on.

Ziaja has brown eyes, is six-feet-two-inches tall, weighs approximately 180 pounds, and has short brown hair. He speaks Polish and English and is a vegetarian, an animal lover, and an animal rights advocate as well as a software engineer, his family says.

Mississauga resident Filip Ziaja, 38, last communicated with his family and employer on July 12. He travelled to Greece on July 7 and was expected to return to Canada in September (Supplied photo)

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to email bringfiliphome@gmail.com. Details can also be shared on the Bring Filip Ziaja Home Facebook group.

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