A Facebook miracle has happened after a mourning girlfriend turned to the social media network in hopes of finding a long lost photo of her late boyfriend. 
 
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 Saya Tomioka posted an emotional plea last Sunday after her boyfriend, Griffin Madden, died in the warehouse fire on Dec. 2. 
 
 The Oakland Fire Department told ABC News that the warehouse, known as the Ghost Ship that housed artists' studios, was hosting a dance party when the deadly blaze broke out. 33 bodies were recovered by officials. 
 
 Tomioka asked her friends to share this status: 
 
 "This morning I remembered the first time I went to Times Square, June 16 of 2015," she began. "I cried, and we kissed. Some random photographer captured this very moment, this very kiss." 
 
 Tomioka said she never got the photographer's name after he "showed us the single beautiful snap shot that he was able to capture." The Los Angeles woman wrote that she wanted the photo as a "reminder of the brightest light of all--love." 
 
 Only four days later, that message reached New York-based photographer Arken Avan. He told ABC News that multiple people reached out to him, informing him of Tomioka's story. 
 
 "I decided to check my hard drive," he recalled, but added that he couldn't find the photo. He then searched another hard drive and almost didn't find the photo that just so happened to be in an incorrect folder. 
 
 Avan, 28, said he keeps his photos organized by date as the Kazakhstan native takes many photos. He had to sort through 2000 photos before he located this one. 
 
 "I found the photo. I was shocked," he said. "I couldn’t believe it. I was happy, but at the same time I was very sad." 
 
 At 3 a.m., Avan posted the photo on her Facebook chain, saying, "Miracles happen, Saya." 
 
 "I just pulled out my archive from last year and this was only beautiful picture I took that nice evening of June 15, 2016," he wrote. "I actually remember this moment, young lady was holding pretzel in her hand and young man had lipstick on his cheek. What a beautiful and adorable couple I thought at that moment and seen them kissing." 
 
 Avan added his condolences and told her he'd be posting more photos from that night. 
 
 The Queens, New York, photographer hopes that these memories will comfort her during this time. 
 
 "It’s good to be part of this," he said, "but it doesn’t matter when somebody's life is gone." 

 The girlfriend of an Oakland warehouse fire victim experienced a "Facebook miracle" in a time of crippling grief when hundreds of social media users helped her track down a special year-old photograph of the two of them. Garvin Thomas reports. (Published Friday, Dec. 9, 2016) 
 
 The girlfriend of an Oakland warehouse fire victim experienced a “Facebook miracle” in a time of crippling grief when hundreds of social media users helped her track down a special year-old photograph of the two of them. 
 
 Saya Tomioka's boyfriend Griffin Madden, 23, was among 36 people who perished in a fire at the Ghost Ship warehouse Friday. Amid her mourning for the loss, she turned to social media in an attempt to find the person who captured a a photo of the couple during a trip to New York City last June. 
 
 It had been Tomioka's first time in Times Square, she recalled in a Facebook post published Sunday. Tomioka and Madden were mid-embrace when a photographer captured the moment. 
 
 “I've always longed to find this particular photograph and thank the photographer,” she wrote in the post. “Friends, possibly with your help, I can be reunited with this photograph, this treasured memory that I'll always keep in my heart.” 
 
 Tomioka acknowledged that finding it would be akin to a “Facebook miracle,” but wrote it would be something to lift her spirits. 
 
 After being shared more than 300 times, the post made its way to Arken Avan, a professional photographer who is known for taking pictures of couples in New York's bustling city center. After a quick search through his photo collection, Avan zeroed in on the now famous photo and send it to Tomioka. 
 
 “Two people shared that post with me yesterday, my NYPD friend I know from Times Square, and some of Saya’s friends,” Avan told NBC Bay Area, on how he heard about the photo search. 
 
 He told Tomioka he remembered that exact moment. 
 
 “I actually remember this moment — young lady was holding pretzel in her hand and young man had lipstick on his cheek,” he wrote in a message to her. "What a beautiful and adorable couple I thought at that moment. I'm sorry for your loss and hope you will keep these pictures for memory, forever.” 
 
 He says also plans to share the photo on his @NewYorkFaces Instagram, in honor of Madden. 
 
 Tomioka has since taken to Facebook again, describing the agony of learning about the devastating fire and having to wait for days until crews recovered Madden's body and identified him. 
 
 "I thought that I'd feel better when the waiting ended, but instead, I felt dissatisfied. I felt like I hadn't found you---yet," she wrote. 
 
 But Avan's photo helped bring a "glimpse of your light back into my life," Tomioka said. "With the infinite help from our families, friends, and strangers, I finally found you." 
 
 Avan's photograph came at the end of a June 2015 evening that included Madden and Tomioka laughing hysterically over "The Book of Mormon" and haggling over a pretzel. After finding the photo, Tomioka said she "sobbed" and "immediately laughed uncontrollably." 
 
 She continued: "Life is so strange. I've lost you, but I've never felt stronger in my life. Through our many years of love and growth, I learned how to be strong from you." 
 
 NBC Bay Area's Rhea Mahbubani contributed to this report. 
 
 RAW: Close-Up View of Burned Oakland Warehouse 
 
 Officials allowed media a closer look Tuesday at the burned Oakland warehouse where 36 people lost their lives late Friday. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016) 
 
 Gillian Edevane covers Contra Costa County for NBC Bay Area. Contact her at Gillian.Edevane@NBCuni.com or at (669) 263-2895.
– Devastated over the death of her boyfriend in the Oakland fire, Saya Tomioka went looking for a reminder of their love: a photo of the couple in happier times, locked in a kiss in Times Square. There was one problem: Tomioka didn't have the picture, and she had no idea who took it, ABC News reports. (The photographer had showed her the image on his camera after snapping it that night.) So against some pretty high odds, the Los Angeles woman took to Facebook, hoping it could help her find this last link to Griffin Madden, 23. Their kiss was planted firmly in her memory. "This morning I remembered the first time I went to Times Square, June 16 of 2015," she wrote in her plea on Dec. 4. "I cried, and we kissed. Some random photographer captured this very moment, this very kiss." She asked her friends to share her appeal to find the image. The post was shared hundreds of times, notes NBC Bay Area, and several people alerted Arken Avan, a Queens photographer who photographs couples around New York City. "I actually remember this moment," he tells ABC News. "Young lady was holding pretzel in her hand and young man had lipstick on his cheek." But that didn't mean finding the elusive snap was going to be easy. Avan combed through his hard drives and more than 2,000 images. "I found the photo. I was shocked," he says. "I couldn’t believe it. I was happy, but at the same time I was very sad." Avan wrote on his Facebook page that the story was "a very good lesson for me and other people to appreciate and remember every day and every moment with people we love." A joyful Tomioka told her friends, "Miracles happen, Saya." (One woman is hoping Facebook can help find her long-lost triplets.)