SHEMIYA
Wife: Shemiya, Age 30
Missing Husband: Joseph, Age 33
Location: Jackson Heights, New York
Disappeared: March 2025
Relationship Timeline
July 2020:They met at a river-float meetup in Seattle during COVID through mutual friends. Chemistry was instant; dates turned into sleepovers, and “inseparable” became the norm.
December 2020: Within months they moved in together.
She became pregnant in 2021 with his child and suffered a miscarriage. Despite the loss they were happy for several years living and spending every moment together.
June 2022: Their relationship began unraveling under the weight of arguments, his heavy drinking, and his decision to move his family into their small apartment without her consent. Shemiya broke up with him in 2022 and moved to New York.
While in New York they stayed in loose contact, never losing their love and connection to each other. During these two years they were an on-again, off-again couple. By late 2024, after hard conversations and promises of change, they agreed to give it one final, grown-up shot, meaning they would get married.
Framing it as a clean restart “before God,” they chose a faith-first path.
Shemiya is Muslim. Her mother is muslim and her father is Christian. Shemiya has always wanted to get married in the Muslim church her entire life. She takes her faith and the act of Nikah extremely seriously.
Prior to the marriage, she made sure to confirm with Joseph that he would take this relationship, their marriage and their lifelong commitment to each other just as seriously.
They had an Islamic marriage, or “Nikah” on February 19, 2025. They received a marriage certificate from the Islamic church.
A Nikah is a sacred marriage contract and ceremony that unites a couple in the presence of Allah, requiring mutual consent, a guardian for the bride (Wali), two adult male witnesses, and a mandatory dower (Mahr) from the groom to the bride.
The Disappearance
Just three weeks later, on March 3, 2025, Shemiya left for work after a minor argument the night before, and returned home to find Joseph gone.
Every trace of him had vanished, including his belongings, their shared possessions, and even their marriage certificate.
Within days, she saw him on Snapchat with another woman. He blocked her everywhere, leaving no way to reach him.
Aftermath & Attempting To Find Him
Shemiya does not know where he is but has a hunch. While they were broken up, prior to their marriage, Joseph was with another woman, a blind girlfriend in Florida. This blind woman acted as a “sugar mama,” paying bills and essentially supporting his lifestyle.
Shemiya believes he was taking advantage of her, taking her money, living off of her, and repaying her in affection–affection, that she had a difficult time finding with anyone else because of her disability.
Shemiya reached out after he left, but he blocked her and offered no explanation.
Social media: She checked Snapchat and Facebook, only to see him with other women and no way to contact him.
She has no phone number or address and believes he’s deliberately hiding.
The certificate question: He left with their Nikah certificate before a judge could finalize the paperwork on their government document. She believes he wanted to complicate any path to formal dissolution and avoid being confronted.
He owes her money; she wants it repaid. She suspects he may already be in another new relationship.
Impact on Shemiya
The betrayal shattered her. She endured months of depression, sleepless nights, and questioning how someone she trusted with her faith and her future could disappear so cruelly.
Her Islamic faith makes the loss even more painful. In her tradition, he cannot simply vanish, he must acknowledge and grant her a divorce, verbally, and in person. Until then, she feels spiritually trapped.
Shemiya does not want Joseph back; she wants answers, accountability, and the respect of closure.