RCMP believes Japanese psychiatrist had suicidal plan to disappear into wilderness outside Y e l l o w k n i f e RepublishReprintRepublish onlineRepublish OfflineReprintJoe O ' Connor | November 9 , 2014 | Last Updated : Jan 24 5 : 32 PM ETMore from Joe O ' Connor | @ oconnorwritesThe Canadian Press / RCMPAtsumi Yoshikubo , a 45 - year - old Japanese psychiatrist with long black hair and brown eyes , and a history of traveling alone , checked into The Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife on Oct . 17 . Two days later she visited a gift shop and tourist information centre . Security footage shows her wearing a pink coat , a pink hat , black pants and white shoes . on Wednesday Oct . 22 she was seen walking out of town , toward Jackfish Lake . She hasn ’ t been seen since . Yellowknife is a modern town with an airport , a hospital , several coffee shops and all the amenities of urban life . But walk 15 minutes in any direction and civilization falls away , and the forests and lakes and dense Northern bush take over . For locals , this is life in the Northwest Territories . For tourists , the surrounding wilderness is the great unknown , and wandering into the woods bordering Yellowknife in late October , at a time of year when the rocks are slick , the ground is damp , ice is forming on the water and the temperature is dropping below zero nightly , is ill - advised . The Canadian Press / RCMPRCMP in Yellowknife believe Atsumi Yoshikubo planned to disappear into the wilderness and she is presumed to be dead . It is easy to get lost . Or hurt . But what about someone who wants to get lost ? Atsumi Yoshikubo , a 45 - year - old Japanese psychiatrist with long black hair and brown eyes , and a history of traveling alone , checked into The Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife on October 17 . Two days later she visited a gift shop and tourist information centre . Security footage shows her wearing a pink coat , a pink hat , black pants and white shoes . on Wednesday Oct . 22 she was seen walking out of town , toward Jackfish Lake . She hasn ’ t been seen since . Her disappearance has grabbed Yellowknife ’ s imagination , and wrapped around its heart . The RCMP initiated an extensive search . Hundreds of locals joined in , while several Japanese media crews descended on the town . Then came the twist in the plot : on Nov . 4 the RCMP abruptly called off the search and issued a media release stating that Ms . Yoshikubo had “ arrived in Yellowknife with a plan to go into the wilderness and become a missing person . ” A suicide note had surfaced in Japan , in the possession of a woman friendly with Ms . Yoshikubo , according to Japanese media reports . Kenji Yoshikubo , the missing woman ’ s younger brother , acknowledged the note ’ s existence , although he said he had not read it , personally , and still believed he would see his sister again . Alive . Why else , the brother reasoned , would she have bought a round trip plane ticket to Canada — and jewellery from a gift shop ? People who are suicidal can have this fantasy where they can have a temporary escape — a temporary suicideSimon Hatcher is a psychiatry professor at the University of Ottawa . He says that going on an extended wilderness trip by oneself is a form of “ suicide , ” because the person is withdrawing . They escape , cut themselves off and , ultimately , when their trip is over , walk back out of the woods refreshed . Someone who is suicidal is more ambivalent about outcomes . If they survive , OK . And if they die , that is OK , too . “ People who are suicidal can have this fantasy where they can have a temporary escape — a temporary suicide , ” Prof . Hatcher says . “ And maybe that way they will standout , and somebody will come along and save them . Maybe this was some form of this woman testing fate . ” But why test it in the Northwest Territories ? RCMPOn Nov . 4 the RCMP abruptly called off the search for Atsumi Yoshikubo and issued a media release stating that she had “ arrived in Yellowknife with a plan to go into the wilderness and become a missing person . ” The world has its suicide magnets . Picturesque spots , such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Eiffel Tower , that are romanticized as end destinations for people looking to kill themselves . About 30 , 000 Japanese kill themselves annually and , curiously , given the case of Ms . Yoshikubo , many choose to do so in the Aokigahara Forest , at the foot of Mt . Fuji . Wataru Tsurumi , a bestselling Japanese author , described the forest as the “ perfect place to die ” in The Complete Manual of Suicide . The trees are tightly spaced and the forest silent , and otherworldly . A person can get lost in it , with a pill bottle or a rope , or else no food and no water , and with no hope of being found . “ Sometimes people romanticize about how they might control their death , and they can become fixated on a place , ” says Karen Letofsky , the executive director of the Toronto Distress Centres . “ Maybe this woman came to Canada to create some distance from her family , and to spare them from it . ” Maybe this woman came to Canada to create some distance from her family , and to spare them from itMs . Yoshikubo ’ s brother , according to the Japanese translator who assisted the National Post in reviewing the Japanese news coverage of the story , had not seen his sister in a decade , nor did he know she was in Canada . Neither did her father . Was she estranged from her family ? And then there is the note . What did it say ? Who is the woman who had it in her possession ? In Yellowknife , the RCMP aren ’ t saying much , beyond the search is over and the missing persons file for Ms . Yoshikubo remains open . What the woman in the pink coat has left behind , however , is a haunting sense among locals that had they looked in the right stand of trees , or just kept searching for a few days more , perhaps she might have been found . Safe . “ Nobody knows what happened to her , ” says David Radcliffe , one of the volunteer searchers . “ And there is a good chance nobody ever will . Can you imagine what this must be like for her family ? ” It was minus - 19 Celsius in Yellowknife last week . The sun was out . The search was over . Winter had come