Delaware mother frantic for information on daughter missing in Japan earthquake zone

A woman in the northeastern U.S. state of Delaware is desperate for news about her daughter who is missing in Japan’s earthquake zone.

Karen Nagyiski, of Dover, Del. last heard from her daughter, Jessica Besecker, since late last week through her last Facebook and Twitter updates.

Just after the earthquake, Jessica posted a message on Facebook which said Huge quake. Will update later. So Far it's all ok. Kids are safe.

But that was before the tsunami struck the region and washed away houses, buildings, roads and people.

For the past two and a half years Besecker, 24, has worked as an English teacher for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program and lives in Kesennuma, which is located in the Miyagi prefecture, the epicenter of the earthquake-tsunami tragedy that struck the country last week.

The last time I had contact with her we were chatting online [last] Thursday morning our time,” Nagyiski told the News Journal newspaper of Wilmington, Del.

“It was late Thursday evening her time. She was getting ready for a tea ceremony because the school where she teaches is having a graduation. She was joking about getting her kimono ready.”

Nagyiski said that some of her daughters have been found safe, but she remains missing.

We've been frantically trying to see if they have located her, Nagyiski said.

Adding to Nagyiski’s anxiety is the fact that officials from the JET program initially included her daughter's name on a list of employees who had been accounted for. Then, on Tuesday they removed her name from the list.

She has failed to reach her daughter through her phone. When calling she hears a message in Japanese.

It was an answering machine saying that the person could not be reached, she said.

She is especially concerned since the area where Besecker lives has been devastated and pulverized by the earthquake.

We don't know after the tsunami, the area has been devastated; her apartment building, we looked on the satellite, is nothing but rubble, Jessica's aunt Sharon Ponsell told a Philadelphia TV station.

Meanwhile, Nagyiski is pulling out all the stops to locate her daughter. Her sister went on Facebook and Twitter and began “friending” people in Japan to ask if they had seen her. They have sent pictures of Besecker and waiting to hear back.

It's been very frustrating not hearing from her; we're just trying to locate her and just make sure she is safe, Nagyiski told WPVI TV station in Philadelphia.

Unfortunately the majority of her city was on fire, there's a lot of damage, there's ships washed up in the harbor; just looking at the pictures, it makes your heart drop because you just don't know.”
Jessica was scheduled to return to the U.S. in August when her three-year teaching program would end.