Joanna Brylowska was born on June 15, 1981 in Gdańsk. She was the youngest child of Gabriela and Gerard Brylowski. Adult Joanna still lived with her parents and older brother, Krzysztof. The oldest of the three, Tomasz, started his own family and moved out with his wife and children.
Asia was an intelligent and ambitious girl. After graduating from high school, she chose to study economics. In the fall of 2004, Brylowska was supposed to start her last, fifth year of economics. In addition, she also studied a second field, psychology, which she decided to take a year earlier. Due to her very good academic results, the young woman received a scholarship to study in Genoa, Italy.
One of the student's strengths were foreign languages, which certainly made it easier for her to go abroad. Brylowska spoke English and Italian well. During the holidays in 2004, Joanna went to Italy (specifically to Sicily) to work and improve her language skills. When the holidays were slowly coming to an end, the 23-year-old returned to Gdańsk. She was taking care of the last matters before leaving for Genoa and spending time with friends and family.
Quite unexpectedly, Asia also made an important decision at that time. She decided to break up with her boyfriend. Her relationship with Kamil had started four years earlier and it seemed that they had a future together. Joanna changed her plans, although after a few days she realized that her move had not been fully thought out. So she informed Kamil that she would like to come back to him, but the man did not agree to it. He claimed that Brylowska had already made her choice. The 23-year-old took the situation very hard.
The days passed and the date of departure to Italy was getting closer. September 13, 2004 fell on a Monday. Asia was practically ready to travel and her suitcase was packed. The student decided to go to a disco in the evening. At least that's what she told Krzysztof when she left the house. Around 11 p.m., my brother received a message from Asia, who wrote that she would return late at night or only in the morning.
The next day (Tuesday), Mrs. Gabriela Brylowska was called by her daughter's friend. She asked if she had found Joanna. The friend was concerned because Kamil had called her earlier and suspected that something bad might have happened to his ex-girlfriend. Asia tried to contact him the previous evening. When she failed to talk to the man, she recorded a voice message. She said that she wanted to hear her ex-boyfriend's voice for the last time.
Asia's family then began to worry because the 23-year-old had not returned home after the party. Her parents contacted a friend with whom she had gone to a disco two days earlier. The man said that he had not seen Asia since then. What's more, it turned out that none of her friends had partied with her the previous night. The Brylowski family reported their daughter missing, but the police did not care much. Joanna was an adult after all. Investigators could assume that she was sleeping off the night's fun at an acquaintance's or someone she had just met at a disco.
However, hours passed, and then days, but Brylowska still did not return home. She also did not contact her relatives or friends. Family members decided they had to take matters into their own hands. They started by checking the computer used by the missing woman. It turned out that shortly before her disappearance, Joanna was looking for information about a ferry trip to Sweden. So the parents contacted the company that organized these cruises. However, due to personal data protection, they were unable to obtain any specific information.
Thanks to close contacts, it was finally possible to determine that on the evening of September 13, the student actually decided to sail to Karlskrona, Sweden. An even bigger surprise was that she only bought a one-way ticket. Asia's parents found a surveillance video showing their daughter boarding the ferry. She only had a small purse with her. No other person accompanied her.
It is not entirely certain whether the woman reached Sweden. According to some sources, the carrier does not check the number of people leaving the ship. In other materials, I came across information that all passengers were counted and no one was missing. In any case, it was still unclear what happened next.
Since the police still did not get involved in solving the disappearance, the parents were forced to act on their own. They went to Sicily, more specifically to the small town of Mineo, where the 23-year-old worked until recently. Unfortunately, they didn't learn anything specific there. It is worth adding that after returning from Italy, Asia was repeatedly called by someone with whom the student spoke Italian. Was this the man who made her decide to break up with her boyfriend? Did he have any connection with the young woman's disappearance? We'll probably never know.
The missing person's relatives then decided to go to Sweden, but there they also found no clues that would bring them closer to solving the mystery. Half a year after Asia's disappearance, the police finally questioned the cruise passengers and the ship's captain. However, no one remembered the student from Tricity, which after such a long time was not surprising.
The breakthrough in the investigation came in November 2006, more than two years after the disappearance. That day, Mrs. Gabriela was listening to a Polish Radio broadcast. At one point, one of the listeners named Marek dedicated the song "Yesterday" by The Beatles... to Joanna Brylowska from Stockholm. The surprised mother of the missing person contacted the journalist presenting the program. The woman told about her daughter's disappearance. Moved by this story, the announcer gave the number of a man who asked to play the indicated song.
Gabriela Brylowska managed to talk to this potentially important witness by phone. Marek told me that he met Asia in the capital of Sweden. In one of the stores, he came across an advertisement for a woman looking for a job as a cleaner. The man called the number and said he was looking for someone to clean his house. The cleaner was supposed to be Joanna Brylowska. Marek remembered that during her stay with him, someone called the missing woman many times. It looked as if someone was checking Asia.
Mrs. Gabriela wanted to find out how her interlocutor was so sure that he had met her daughter. Marek claimed that she had not revealed her identity to him. For this reason, he wanted to search her purse. However, the woman noticed this and became very angry. The man was not satisfied with this and started checking the databases of missing persons in Poland. This is how he came across a photo of Joanna.
The missing woman's mother asked for the phone number her daughter used in Sweden, but according to Marek, it was no longer active. The woman wanted to find out even more details. She managed to arrange an interview, which was to take place in Sweden. The woman sailed to Stockholm, but the meeting turned out to be a great disappointment. The man behaved in a rude, even arrogant manner. He also demanded money for more details, but Asia's mother did not agree to this. It is difficult to say unequivocally whether the mysterious Marek even met Brylowska, or whether he made up this story.
In 2015, the owner of a beauty salon approached the Itaka Foundation. The woman was convinced that one of her clients was Joanna. However, this could not be confirmed or ruled out. Over the years, there have been many reports that someone has seen a missing person in Italy, Sweden or Poland.
One of the most interesting threads of this case is the investigation of the Missing Foundation years ago. Apparently they managed to establish that Joanna Brylowska is alive and living in Sweden. The woman was to change her name and surname and even obtain Swedish citizenship. Foundation employees contacted the family of the missing person and provided the information they had obtained. Asia's relatives reportedly demanded that the Missing People stop their investigation all those years ago. The parents were to verify these sensational findings themselves. However, it is not known whether they did so and, if so, whether they were confirmed or ruled out.
There are at least a few hypotheses regarding the fate of the missing woman. According to the first and, in my opinion, the most probable, Joanna is still alive and lives in Sweden. Confirmation could be, among other things, the findings regarding the ferry trip, the accounts of witnesses (especially Marek) or the investigation of the Zaginieni foundation from years ago. But why did the talented student decide to start a new life? It is a mystery, especially since she supposedly had very good relations with her family. She was also close to completing her economic studies and leaving for Italy. It could seem that her life was successful.
However, it probably wasn't as perfect as many people thought. Breaking up with my boyfriend was certainly a difficult moment. For this reason alone, there were many voices that the young woman committed suicide. It allegedly occurred during the ship journey to Sweden or after reaching land. Of course, this possibility cannot be completely ruled out, but in my opinion it is unlikely. Cancer, which Asia contracted at the beginning of her studies, is often mentioned in this context. Brylowska was very strong and determined. This brave attitude probably contributed to her winning the fight against the disease.
The scenario of involvement of third parties who were responsible for the woman's disappearance was also assumed. According to this hypothesis, Joanna could have been lured to Sweden with the promise of a well-paid job, and then ended up in a brothel or become a victim of kidnapping or murder. These are, of course, speculations, as there is no direct evidence for this. However, the phone calls to the student mentioned earlier by Marek could indicate that someone was keeping an eye on where she was and what she was doing.
Although almost 20 years have passed since Joanna Brylowska's disappearance, we still do not know exactly what happened to her. We can only hope that one day this mysterious case will be solved, although there are indications that many people know the truth, but it has not been officially confirmed.
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