Family seeks release of Ontario grandmother held in Hong Kong on drug charges

The apparent online scam that landed Suzana Thayer in a Hong Kong jail for allegedly trafficking cocaine on a flight from Ethiopia was not the first time the Ontario grandmother had been duped by a fake internet romance.

Thayer was writing a book about her first experience of being defrauded online — by someone purporting to be a doctor working for the United Nations in Syria — when her family says she was lured in again.

In the first ordeal the Barrie, Ont., resident lost more than $200,000. In the second she lost her liberty, at least for now, as she languishes in a Hong Kong jail pending resolution of her case.

Thayer's daughter told The Canadian Press that her 64-year-old mother is "1,000 per cent innocent" of drug trafficking, and would never have knowingly travelled with tens of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine packed into buttons of clothing she was asked to transport.

Angela Thayer described her mother as a woman who became vulnerable as she sought companionship online several years after the 2016 death of her husband, the only man she had ever been with and to whom she had been married for decades.

"I believe she had no knowledge of the drugs and that she was a victim of a romance scam," Thayer said in an interview.

When asked about the matter, Global Affairs Canada said "consular officials are actively engaged on this case and are providing consular assistance to the individual and their family."

Suzana Thayer is receiving informal assistance from a Hong Kong-based Catholic clergyman named John Witherspoon, who says he's helped more than a dozen foreigners who claimed to have been tricked into smuggling drugs.

Witherspoon said in an interview that he has visited Thayer in jail several times.

He voiced hope Thayer may walk free, saying the Hong Kong authorities "are not after blood at any cost," and have a track record of releasing people when evidence points towards innocence.

"I am optimistic but I can't guarantee a time frame," he said.

"You just have to be patient."

Angela Thayer said her mother was first targeted by someone who identified themselves on Facebook as Walter Williams.

She isn't certain when the relationship began, but knows that by the summer of 2021 her mother believed she was married to the person, who presented her with a marriage certificate subsequently deemed fake by Ontario Provincial Police.