A Kelowna man serving a life sentence for strangling a teenage girl to death 16 years ago is missing from the minimum security unit at a prison in Mission, B.C. 

Robert Raymond Dezwaan was not accounted for in the Mission Institution on the afternoon of Apr. 14, Correctional Service Canada announced late Friday.

A warrant for his arrest has been issued by RCMP.

In 2003, Dezwaan pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 16-year-old Cherish Oppenheim in Merritt, two years after choking her to death and leaving her body in the woods.

Dezwaan was sentenced to life in prison, with no opportunity for parole for 15 years. His son, Kruse Wellwood, was one of two people found guilty of first-degree murder of Kimberly Proctor, an 18-year-old from Victoria, in March 2010. 

Dezwaan is 53 years old, six-foot-one and 186 pounds, with green eyes and a bald head. 

Anyone who has information on where Dezwaan might be is asked to call their local police.