Seattle police say a detective is investigating the case of a University of Washington student who went missing Saturday.

Relatives say they last saw Marizela Perez, 18, at about noon Saturday in the Rainier Beach neighborhood where she lives. She was heading to a library on the UW campus.

According to the student's aunt and uncle, Lauro and Melinda Mendoza, a witness claims to have seen Perez at the Safeway on Brooklyn Avenue Northeast in the University District later that afternoon.

Perez's father, Edgar Perez, from New Jersey, said he was flying to Seattle on Monday to help in the search.

"I can't describe what my wife and I are experiencing," Perez said. "When you see a person missing on TV you feel sadness. When that person is related to you ... I can't describe it."

Perez said his daughter has been living with her aunt and uncle.

The family filed a missing-persons report Sunday with Seattle and UW police. They said Perez might have taken a Link light-rail train part way to the University District.

Edgar Perez said he called his daughter about 4 p.m. Saturday, but got no answer. Normally, he said, she calls back within five minutes, but he didn't hear back from her.

"If she's going to be late she always calls us," he said. He said he contacted Perez's boyfriend, and he hadn't seen Marizela either.

Lauro Mendoza said he last saw her at noon Saturday and expected her back at dinnertime.

"She always comes home on time," her uncle said. When she didn't return, Mendoza went to the UW campus Saturday night with his daughter and Perez's boyfriend to search for her.

"This is very hard on every member of the family," Mendoza said.

Edgar Perez said he plans to put up fliers and posters and is hoping security cameras at the UW library would show if she ever arrived.

UW police spokesman Jerome Solomon said Perez did not attend any of her classes Monday.

Marizela Perez is described as 5-foot-5, Asian, 110 pounds with a bobbed hairstyle. She has a tattoo on her left inner arm with the words "lahat ay magiging maayos" — Tagalog for "all will be well." She was wearing jeans and possibly carrying a plaid backpack with a laptop.

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