It has been nearly one week since Mustafa Toufexief disappeared in Oakville, and his sister is getting increasingly concerned.
Mustafa lives with mental health challenges and is considered to be a vulnerable person.
“Last week we saw the beginnings of him having a mental health episode, but when he left the house on Friday he was calm,” Mustafa’s sister Fatma Toufexief says. “We know he was last seen on Saturday at about 9:30 a.m.”
Toufexief says her brother has been hospitalized before under Form 1 and Form 2, the former being an application by a physician for a person to go for a psychiatric assessment to determine whether they need to be admitted for further care, and the latter allowing police to bring a person into a hospital for psychiatric assessment.
She has also contacted the Halton Regional Police Service Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST), but says there is rarely anything they can do due to a combination of regulations and lack of resources.
“Sometimes COAST does send an officer in plain clothes, and they do have their own task force with a doctor who can come, but they’re not always available at the moment,” Toufexief says. “Sometimes they are busy, or they aren’t working evenings or weekends.”
Mustafa does not have a cell phone with him and has not been heard from or seen since last Saturday.
His family is playing out different scenarios in their heads about where he could be now.
“We don’t know what mental state he was in on Saturday, what was going through his mind,” Toufexief says. “That unpredictability could lead to so many different possibilities, where he could be, or what could have happened to him. It’s just so strange for someone to disappear.”
Mustafa is 42 years old, five-foot-six, has a heavy build and grey hair, and was last seen wearing a blue and white striped polo shirt, grey pants, white shoes and blue baseball cap. Police say he may also be riding a bike.
He was last seen near Cornwall Road and Ford Drive in Oakville.
Anyone with information on Mustafa should contact police at 905-825-4747, ext. 2216.
