These are the last heartbreaking text messages from a terrified Queens mom to her daughter begging her to come home the day the dark-haired coed vanished without a trace and whose trussed body was found on a Breezy Point beach on Sunday, the apparent victim of foul play.
“Marisha Cheong u better call me or don’t ever call me again mom >:(“ read the Dec. 19; 5:11 p.m., the first of several desperate pleas by mom Bibi Ali, 46, to her 24-year-old daughter after she disappeared heading to class at LIU in Brooklyn.
Cheong, responded cryptically, “mom am fine. I just need Little time to think. Am good.”
That was the last time Cheong texted back her mom.
On Sunday Cheong’s pajama clad body, her hands and feet bound with rope, wearing one Ugg boot, was found washed ashore on a Breezy Point beach. The cause of her death has not been determined.
But Ali insists it was not her daughter texting her back. She believes it was her alleged killer, boyfriend, Latchman Balkaran, an aspiring filmmaker.
“She texted me but it wasn’t her texts,” Ali insisted. “She texted, ‘Mom, I’m fine’ but she always called me ‘Mommy.’ I know in my heart it wasn’t her — somebody was using her phone.”
By 8: 39 p.m. that same evening, Ali texted her daughter another five times. But she never received a response. “Marisha call me I love u please call me.”
By the next evening Dec. 20, at 9:55 p.m. Ali tried again to contact her daughter, but to no avail.
“Marisha come home am go by lacho and pick up your stuff an get a police to till he not to ce here just call.” The message meant that Ali would be going to her daughter’s house she shared with Balkaran in Jamaica, Queens to pick up some possessions. To call police.
Ali’s final anguished text was on De. 29, at 9:47 p.m. it read simply, “Marisha please call.”
But Balkaran, who says he and Cheong has a fight the day of her dissapearance, doesn’t believe the texts her received were really from her.
He said she didn’t use the usual pet names, ‘baby’ or ‘stinky boo-boo’ “It didn’t sound like her,” he said.
Police said Balkaran is a “person of interest” and has been interviewed twice, but he is not a suspect.
He denies he had anything to do with her disappearance.
Balkaran, a partime deliveryman, said he is an aspiring filmmaker. Posted on his Linkedin page it says he attended the prestigious New York Film Academy. But an administrator there said no one by that name had been a student. The page also touts Balkaran as director and producer of music videos, including, Victoria Secret, JA Rule, Maino and Axe.
“He said he always wanted to be famous. I think this probably will make him famous. He always wanted to be a director and now he’s a TV star and he got his wish.
“He was always saying ‘I’m going to be famous one day’ and now he is,” said the bitter, grief-stricken mom. .
Additional reporting by Jessica Simeone
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Text messages from Bibi Ali 46, mother of Marisha Cheong 24. (
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