CT college student books one-way ticket to Japan, disappears

Skye Budnick was a junior at Central Connecticut State University in the spring of 2008. She was studying international business and loved video games, music and anything Japanese.

Without telling family or friends, the 21-year-old woman – who was still living with her parents in Southington and had never traveled outside of Connecticut – bought a one-way ticket to Japan and boarded a plane.

Her family never saw her again.

At first, the family thought Skye was staying with a friend on campus, which was the story she had told her parents the last time she saw them on March 31, 2008. But after several days of no contact, her mom, Susan, started calling around to friends and realized nobody had heard from or seen her daughter. 

That’s when brother Matt, on April 4, took a deeper look at the family computer and was able to log into Skye’s email account. He found the plane tickets his sister had bought to Hokkaido by way of Tokyo and Washington, D.C., along with an email draft prepared for a friend that indicated Skye was leaving to start a new life. 

After filing a missing person’s report with the Southington Police Department, the family drove to Bradley International Airport and searched the parking garages. Within an hour, they had found Skye’s car, but there was nothing suspicious about it, sister Megan Lebron said in an interview. Then they confirmed with the airline that Skye had actually boarded a plane to Washington, D.C.

What was odd, though, was that Skye did not appear to have packed any belongings. She didn’t have a cellphone, but family believe she took her laptop and her Nintendo DS with her, which both had internet capability and could be used to communicate with her friends. But they found no bags or clothing missing from the house. 

Police contacted Japanese authorities, who confirmed Skye had entered the country. However, in order to file a missing person’s report in Japan, the family had to go there in person. 

Lebron and her mother quickly arranged for tickets and flew into Japan on April 10. Once on site, they learned a few more details and piece together a timeline for Skye’s disappearance. 

Skye had been last seen just a few days before their arrival, officials told them, at an inn at Noboribetsu, a small resort town outside Sapporo in the northern part of Japan. The family knew Skye had been studying Japanese culture and language for several years, and that she loved anime and manga, but were surprised to learn she had chosen a lesser-known location rather than Tokyo, the bustling capital city. 

As far as they knew, Skye had no friends or other connections in Japan.

Skye had arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo on April 2, then transferred to Chitose Airport in Sapporo. She stayed at the Kiyomizuya Ryokan in Noboribetsu from April 4-5, then took a taxi to Karurusu Onsen Suzuki Ryokan and stayed there for one night on April 6. The next day, Skye checked out and mentioned to the innkeeper she was headed to Sapporo. That was the last time anyone saw her alive.    

While in Japan, the family held a big press conference in Tokyo, asking for anyone with information to come forward. 

Later back home, when the family went through Skye’s bank statements, they learned Skye had taken out $800 during a layover in D.C. on April 1 and had done a currency transfer. But they aren’t sure how long $800 would last for someone in a foreign country.

But because of language barriers and dealing with multiple law enforcement agencies - Southington police, Interpol and the Japanese National Police – it was difficult to put more pieces together or make much progress on the case, family members said. 

Sixteen years later, in the spring of 2024, Lebron and her mother went back to Japan to provide new familial DNA samples as technologies have evolved in the past couple of decades, and it had to be done in person, the family was told. They set up a GoFundMe to help pay for the travel costs, which raised more than $16,000. 

“We are scared, anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted, and above all ready for anything,” Lebron wrote on the GoFundMe page. “We refuse to give up hope and remain determined to uncover the truth behind my sister’s disappearance.”

Lebron also started a TikTok series about her sister and how to cope after a loved one goes missing, to help get the word out.  

But still, the family has no answers. 

Skye Budnick, who would be 37 now, is about 5-foot-6 and was around 180 pounds when she went missing in 2008. She has brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone who may have information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Southington Police Department at 860-378-1698.