The family of a missing Texas Tech freshman is probing for answers after the 19-year-old student mysteriously disappeared late last week.
Gordon Hon Fang-Wong was last seen Saturday on the Texas Tech campus. The family reported him missing Sunday night, according to a release from Lubbock police.
Fang-Wong’s father, Hon Wong, said his son’s friends told the family Fang-Wong left on his own for the West Coast. Wong said his son left behind cryptic letters for the family along with all of his possessions besides the clothes he was wearing and a skateboard.
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“That’s so unlike him,” Wong said. “I refuse to accept that, because last time he came back for Christmas break, he was so happy.”
Lubbock police have opened a missing person’s case due to the concerns raised by Fang-Wong’s family, police spokesman Lt. Ray Mendoza said in a news release. Those concerns did not indicate Fang-Wong was taken against his will.
Wong said the family drove to Lubbock from their home in Cedar Hill after learning Fang-Wong was missing Sunday morning. Since then, they have been posting flyers around town and working with Lubbock and Tech police to shed light on Fang-Wong’s disappearance.
“If there’s a message you could leave for him, let him know we love him,” Wong said. “We support whatever he wants to do. If he could at least video call or video text us, if not just call us and let us know that he’s OK. We don’t want to find out that he’s in a cult or in a ditch somewhere.”
On Sunday, Wong received a call from Fang-Wong’s phone. The caller was a friend of Fang-Wong’s, informing his parents that their son had abruptly left Tech.
Upon arriving in Lubbock, the family was presented with letters Fang-Wong had written to his father, mother and little sister. In the letters, Wong said, Fang-Wong claimed to have saved up enough money to buy a house and a car. The latter is unlikely, Wong said, as Fang-Wong doesn’t have a driver’s license.
“He wrote a letter claiming that people were following him. That there were helicopters,” Wong said. “The main thing he said in the letter is ‘I’m a good guy. I’ve always done good. Why do I always come out on the short end of the stick and people that do bad get good things?’”
Before the letters, Fang-Wong’s last contact with his family was a video message of his afternoon meal on Friday, Wong said. They last met in person over the Christmas holiday.
Wong feared the death of the family’s pet rabbit over the holiday break may have contributed to his son’s behavior.
“He was really distraught, and he took it harder than I thought anyone could take it. He took it like one of us died, not like a pet died,” Wong said.
Fang-Wong had also been worried about receiving enough scholarship money to cover the cost of his second semester at Tech, his father said.
Fang-Wong’s roommate, Kenneth Chuang, said he last saw Fang-Wong on Friday when they ate together at The Commons on Tech campus. Fang-Wong didn’t seem to be acting strange, Chuang said, but he did mention he would be moving into a new dorm room.
“(He said) he was switching halls. Something about people taking away his scholarship,” Chuang said.
Chuang described Fang-Wong as a nice guy who sleeps often, enjoys skateboarding and owns an array of hats.
Wong said Fang-Wong was studying to become a doctor. He had already completed an associate’s degree upon graduating from Cedar Hill Collegiate High School and was on track to complete his undergraduate studies in two years, his father said.
Lubbock police detectives are working with Texas Tech police in the search.
Fang-Wong is described as a 6-foot-tall slim Asian man with brown eyes and black hair. He was last seen wearing brown prescription eye glasses, a black cap and a dark green sweater with a white T-shirt underneath. He was also wearing black, low-cut Adidas tennis shoes.
Anyone with information about Fang-Wong is urged to call Lubbock police at 775-2865.
