Supporters of Missing Nursing Student to Gather in Hayward

UPDATE: A Bay Area television station is reporting this morning that the family of Michelle Le has increased its reward amount to $45,000. Last week the family put up $20,000 for information leading to Le’s return.

Family and friends of Michelle Le, the San Mateo woman missing since last Friday, are organizing a gathering tonight at the place in Hayward where her car was found.

According to the supporters’ Facebook page, concerned community members are welcome to join them at the cul-de-sac—located on Ponderosa Court off of Oliver Drive—where Le’s locked white Honda was discovered one week ago.

About 7 p.m. on May 27, Le stepped out during a break in her duties at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hayward, and never returned. According to Hayward police, video surveillance from the Kaiser garage shows her car being driven out of the parking structure that night, though it does not clearly show who was driving.

Friends and fellow nursing students told police that Le was planning to drive to Reno that night after her clinical rotation ended at the Kaiser facility. But she never came back after the 7 p.m. break.

Investigators are still working through , according to Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener. One of those leads involves a “person of interest” later identified as a Union City resident who said she “openly hated” her former friend for stealing her boyfriend, but who denied having anything to do with Le’s disappearance. The woman was questioned and released, Keener said.

“Until we find Michelle it’s very difficult for us to exclude anything because we don’t know what happened to her,” he told Patch earlier this week.

Le’s family has not given up hope, however, and is asking the public’s help in finding her. The family has put up a for information leading to her return.

Le moved to San Mateo from Oakland last year so that she could attend nursing school at and be closer to her work, according to a friend who asked to remain anonymous.

She is “An incredibly – very level headed,” the friend said. “I really hope this turns out well. … We all hate how helpless we feel regarding her disappearance.”

Michelle Le is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. The Hayward Police Department has set up a tip line for anyone with information that could help with the case; that number is 510-293-5051.