Update, Feb. 22: According to the coroner’s office, the cause of death has not been determined pending toxicology results. Hajisaari was, however, seen removing her clothes and entering the water near the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park.
Update, Jan. 29: A body located by an Oakland Police Department Air Support Unit and Marine unit helicopter during an aerial and waterway search of the San Leandro Bay has been identified by the Alameda County Coroner’s Office as Diana Gail Hajisaari of Berkeley. The 62-year-old, who was widely known as Gail Saari, was reported missing on Jan. 22 and seen entering the bay. An autopsy was scheduled Friday to determine the cause of death.
Update, 6:20 p.m. A family friend reached out to Berkeleyside to spread the word that the missing Berkeley woman was widely known as Gail Saari. According to her resume, Saari is the publications director at The Independent Institute. She is also a freelance writer and editor.
According to her work bio, “She received a BA from University of Tennessee and a MA in International Affairs from Ohio University. Prior to the Institute, Gail was Managing Editor for CMP Media and Backbeat books where she produced trade books on music, digital video and computer engineering. She also lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur for many years where she was Managing Editor for Malaysian Naturalist magazine and the peer-reviewed Malayan Nature Journal.”
No one has heard from Saari since Friday.
“She left the building without taking any of her personal items such as her purse, keys, phone, and inhaler,” KRON4 reported over the weekend.
Original post, Jan. 25, 3:02 p.m. Authorities are asking for the public’s help to find a Berkeley woman who has been missing since Friday morning.
Police say Diana Hajisaari, 62, left her job, in the 100 block of Swan Way near Bay Farm Island and Hegenberger Road, Friday at about 10.
The Oakland Police Department says Hajisaari may have been spotted at the nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park about two hours later.
Hajisaari is 5 foot 4 and 110 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a tweed jacket and a gray shirt.
Police ask anyone with information to call the Oakland Police Department’s missing persons unit at 510-238-3641.
The department also accepts anonymous tips: Text “TIP OAKLANDPD” to 888777 from a cellphone, followed by the tip, or call OPD’s toll-free tip line at 855-TIPS-247 (855-847-7247).
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