Dad and 2 Kids Disappeared After Moving to New Country. He and Daughter Remain Missing Nearly 6 Months After Son Found Dead

Six months after a Canadian father and his young daughter vanished in Panama, their family is still searching for answers — and pushing authorities for progress in the case.

Ghussan Iqbal, 31, and his two children, 2-year-old Nousaybah and 7-month-old Musa, disappeared from their home in Bocas del Toro, Panama, on May 21, according to a GoFundMe created by relatives.

On June 11, the family announced on the GoFundMe page that Musa had died, while Ghussan and Nousaybah remained missing. Panama’s Attorney General’s office, the Procuraduría General de la Nación, later confirmed that the baby’s body had been found in the Changuinola River, per CTV News.

Relatives traveled to Panama to help search for their loved ones but have since returned to Canada, CTV reported.

Nagham Azzam Iqbal, Ghussan’s sister-in-law, said it can take days to receive an update from the attorney general’s office in Panama, noting that the family can only communicate via email.

“We don’t even reach out anymore because it’s not useful,” Nagham said.

Relatives told CTV News that Ghussan had moved to Panama with his wife, who is from the country, about a year before he and the children disappeared.

According to the family, Ghussan left home with the two kids around 6 a.m. local time on May 21 and has not been heard from since.

Nagham previously told CTV that Ghussan, who had experienced some mental health challenges, appeared to be doing well when he spoke with her husband over video chat just days before he went missing.

Now, Ghussan’s brother Sulman says the family hopes the Canadian government will pressure Panamanian authorities to speed up efforts to find Ghussan and Nousaybah.

“Nothing was adding up to us then and it’s still not adding up,” Sulman told CTV News. “Literally any theory is possible at this point. We have no idea what happened, no proper leads.”

Nagham said the family feels there is “no sense of urgency for this case” and “no thorough investigation” into the disappearance of Ghussan and his daughter.

More than 22,000 Canadian dollars have been raised through the family’s GoFundMe campaign since May 28, with donations funding search efforts and contributing to a reward for information leading to the missing father and child.

“Of course, we will always hold out hope until there is definite evidence otherwise,” Nagham said, adding, “It’s just very hard to believe that everything’s okay. If they’re alive, they’re not living in a dignified way.”

Panama’s Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.