The family of professor Ramazan Gençay has been pleading for help after the Canadian professor of Turkish origin went missing in Colombia on Dec. 6.

Gençay, a professor of economics at Simon Fraser University in Canada where he settled in the early 1990s, was in Colombia's second-largest city Medellin for a seminar at EAFIT University on Nov. 28. He decided to prolong his stay in the city, which he had been to before. Gençay was last seen with unidentified people at a salsa club on Dec. 6, and an investigation showed money was withdrawn from his credit cards on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8.

His family said on social media that Gençay was an experienced traveler who enjoyed hiking as well as salsa dancing. The professor worked as guest lecturer at EAFIT University in 2016 according to his CV. He also served as a guest lecturer in Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia in 2015. The family said Colombian authorities in cooperation with Canadian security officials were investigating Gençay's disappearance.