By Aarohi Narain
The search for a teen missing for weeks has turned into a body recovery operation.
Early on Monday, May 6, St. Paul police recovered footage showing teen Chuejee Thao jumping off a bridge, spokesperson Steve Linders told AsAmNews.
Thao, a member of Minnesota’s Hmong American community and a junior at Highland Park High School, went missing nearly one month ago. He was last seen at 2:50 p.m. on Monday, April 15, on Robert Street bridge in West St. Paul.
Thao’s family set up a GoFundMe campaign and a Facebook page, Hope for Chuejee, to give the community detailed updates regarding the search. In addition, family members organized numerous personal search parties to find Thao.
With this tragic development, police will be working with the Ramsey County sheriff’s office to search for Thao’s body in the Mississippi River. “The effort has been hampered by the high water levels of the river. We have not located him yet,” Linders said.
“Thank you to everyone who has left us uplifting messages, who stopped by to bring us food, for your thoughts and your prayers, for helping us search, and all your generous donations,” wrote Pa Kou Thao, Thao’s sister.
“We are leaving the GoFundMe open and increasing our goal to now cover funeral and burial expenses for my brother, Chuejee. We based this goal on estimation on what everything will cost. If his body is not recovered soon, we will also be contacting a drowned victims recovery specialist to aid in the search and recovery of my brother (which would incur additional cost). We will try to keep this page up to date as things become more finalized. We truly do appreciate everyone’s love and support through all of this.”
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