{"id":613882,"date":"2026-04-19T06:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613882\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T06:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T06:01:13","slug":"father-travels-from-zimbabwe-to-winnipeg-to-search-for-missing-30-year-old-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613882\/","title":{"rendered":"Father travels from Zimbabwe to Winnipeg to search for missing 30-year-old son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Family and friends of a 30-year-old man who has been missing for more than two months say they&#8217;re praying to find answers as they searched a south Winnipeg park alongside volunteers on Saturday.   <\/p>\n<p>Michael Masukume, 30, was last seen in the King&#8217;s Park area, near the University of Manitoba, on the morning of Feb. 8, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/manitoba\/winnipeg-missing-30-university-of-manitoba-9.7089919\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">police said in an alert after he went missing<\/a>.   <\/p>\n<p>His father Thitho Masukume travelled from Zimbabwe to look for Michael \u2014 his only son \u2014 about a month ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been hard for me since I came here,&#8221; Thitho said, adding he&#8217;s worried that he might not get any answers before he returns home to Zimbabwe.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man with glasses, smiling\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776545530_135_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7777777777777777\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Michael Masukume is described as being five feet eight inches in height, of medium build with short black hair and brown eyes. (Winnipeg Police Service)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know where he is, how he&#8217;s doing. Is he alive? Or is he dead? Or is he somewhere else?&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Michael&#8217;s friend Sanjana Tiwari, who has known him for more than a decade, said Michael came to Winnipeg to study food sciences and later worked for a professor at the University of Manitoba. <\/p>\n<p>Tiwari said Michael is &#8220;one of the best friends that I&#8217;ve ever had here,&#8221; calling him a &#8220;very genuine&#8221; and private person. She said she was shocked when she heard he was missing and it&#8217;s &#8220;very painful&#8221; to not know what happened to him.   <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just hoping and pray that the search that we are doing today at King&#8217;s Park, some good results come out of it,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A line of people wearing winter jackets is seen walking on a path through a wooded area on a snowy day\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776578473_498_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.717937792927141\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>A group of loved ones and volunteers searched for Michael Masukume near King&#8217;s Park in Winnipeg on Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Gavin Axelrod\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are a lot of people who are here who are looking out for the best for him. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Simba Mazhara, who has been hosting Michael&#8217;s father Thitho at his home in Steinbach, says the community is coming together to hopefully find Michael before Thitho&#8217;s planned trip home on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Michael is a very, very valued individual by the family. Everybody is concerned about him,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[We are] hoping that he could be somewhere alive, but if not at least if there could be something definitive that would bring closure to the family and everybody around him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Winnipeg police told CBC News that officials have been in contact with Michael&#8217;s family and the service has efforts to find him.   <\/p>\n<p>Anyone with information about Michael Masukume&#8217;s whereabouts is encouraged to call Winnipeg police&#8217;s missing persons unit at 204-986-6250.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-613882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}