'lost' are missing

Many of the 'lost' are missing of their own accord, police say

Some disappear on purpose, abandoning their lives, even identities, to begin again somewhere else. Others are taken away from loved ones -- by accident or design -- never to be found.

They are the lost, the missing. But most missing person cases aren't that mysterious, they are often teenagers who have run away from home or foster care or those with mental health issues gone astray.

Hamilton police recently developed a new missing persons operation to do a better job of prioritizing cases and find missing people who are in the most danger.

The system created a missing persons co-ordinator position, and a risk assessment protocol to determine which missing cases need focused police attention.

The number of active missing person reports on file at Central Station changes daily as people are added to the list and found. Last week, the number was at 15, some weeks it can fluctuate in the low to high 20s.

The majority are names police cannot release to the media, among them wards of the Children's Aid Society, who repeatedly flee from group homes.

Others are from women's shelters, or those considered to have mental health problems. In a couple of instances, they are people who have likely chosen to be missing to avoid a warrant out for their arrest.

In addition to the active missing files, there are currently another 15 files for "historical" cases, those that were reported at least a year ago, but are no longer actively pursued -- although cold cases never technically close unless resolved. In the new system, missing people are grouped either in a level one, two or three risk category.

About 90 per cent of active missing persons cases fall in the third, low-risk category.

THE MISSING

On Aug. 31, 2002, Susan Gourley was reported missing by members of her family. Gourley was known to Hamilton police for both prostitution and drug offences. A friend of hers in the area of Barton Street and Stirton Avenue last saw Gourley in early November 2001.

Darcy Puddicomb

Darcy Puddicomb was last seen on Jan. 7, 1997 at 7:15 a.m. Puddicomb left his Mountain residence and started to walk to work. Information suggests that Puddicomb was at a 7-Eleven store located at Main Street East and Ashford Street at 7:35 a.m. He never showed up at his employer. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, a beige cotton/nylon quilted jacket, black boots and carrying a yellow canvas shoulder bag.

Roy (George) Taylor

George Taylor was last seen at his residence on Friday, April 2, 2004. Hamilton Police were notified that afternoon by family members. Taylor has no known medical conditions and this behaviour is out of the ordinary. His home is adjacent to the Bruce Trail in Stoney Creek. He is an avid walker but not necessarily on that trail.

Dana Zelic

Dana Zelic disappeared from her residence on Aug. 30, 1999. She has not returned nor contacted any of her family members since then. She left home without medication, I.D. or personal belongings.

Mark Edmonson

Mark Edmonson, 42, disappeared from his residence in Stoney Creek on Oct. 3, 1999. Edmonson has never returned and has not contacted any of his family members since that time. Edmonson is mentally challenged. It is believed that he left home without taking any money or personal identification. Police searches using a tracking dog and officers on foot failed to locate his whereabouts.

William (Billy) Mason

Billy Mason has not been seen or heard from by family or friends since Feb. 22, 2006. He was last seen in the area of 917 Main St. E. in Hamilton. Detectives have been searching for him since March 2006. Billy is very close to his mother and his young daughter. He has not been in contact with either of them since going missing. Foul play cannot be ruled out.

Jeffrey Dekleyn

Jeffrey Dekleyn was last seen on bank surveillance cameras making an ATM transaction at the Royal Bank at Main Street West and Whitney Avenue on Dec. 3, 1992 at 1:35 p.m. He is described by his family as being depressed. He walks with a limp and may display early symptoms of Huntington's Disease. The symptoms are similar to alcohol impairment.

Felicia Floriani

Felicia Floriani was reported missing on June 10, 2002. She was 15 years old at that time. She has a history of running away, and is known to support herself as a sex trade worker. She was last seen by friends and relatives in September 2002.

David Nixon

On July 6, 1984, David Nixon was last seen walking westbound on King Street west from James Street. He had been renting a room on Quigley Road and visited family regularly who lived on Glen Echo Drive. Family said it was very uncharacteristic of him to lose contact with them. At the time he went missing, he was 23 years old. The family believes he has been a victim of foul play.

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'Everyone leaves some sort of trail'

The phone rang at Patricia Taylor's Stoney Creek home a while back. It was the police. Human remains had been found in the Red Hill Valley.

She was not surprised. A police officer usually calls her when remains are found.

There are about 30 names on the Hamilton police list of active and historical missing persons, and Patricia is one of those who is left wondering if the next phone call will solve the mystery of their missing loved one.

Patricia appreciated the courtesy call from police, but she knew what the officer would say next, that it was not her missing husband, Roy (George) Taylor. She had already read in the newspaper that the victim found was smaller than George's 6-foot-4 frame.

The remains found in the valley did not turn out to be Patricia's husband, but she is convinced of one thing -- that he is dead.

Patricia feels she has already received the final word on George, and it came to her in an unusual way. As the weeks and then months dragged on after her husband of 45 years went missing in April 2004, Patricia said she went through the stages. For weeks she was in shock. Then she grieved.

Still, she kept wondering if one day he'd just come walking through the door. And whenever she heard the phone ring, she wondered if it was the police with news.

One night, though, she received a different kind of sign. She's convinced it wasn't a dream, but something else.

It was six months after George, who was 72, had left home on his own and never returned. She woke up in her bed, out of breath, an overwhelming sensation washing over her. It was a sign, she felt, that made clear to her that George was dead.

Police have hypothesized he orchestrated his disappearance. The fact is, unlike in other crimes, the victim in a missing persons case often chooses his or fate. It underscores how tough a task it is for police to prioritize and chase down cases, and how hard it is for families to cope with this emotionally.

"You have to ask, did the person want to disappear? Because there are many reasons why people go missing," said Detective Gary Ostofi, a 40-year police veteran.

"Sometimes they want to be missing, they're unhappy with the situation they're in, want to get away and make a complete break. And some people harbour terrible secrets the family might not know about."

The mysterious nature of missing persons leaves families struggling for answers.

In some cases there is the daily terror of wondering if there has been an abduction or murder. In others, there is the emptiness that comes with the realization that perhaps they never knew what lurked in the mind or heart of their loved one.

Patricia Taylor still can't fathom what happened to her husband. He had made a cryptic comment to her that he wouldn't be home for Easter dinner -- and he wasn't. He simply left, without taking any belongings. It was very hard on the family -- George's four children, three grandchildren. Their six-year-old granddaughter would even try to rationalize it: Maybe he bought some new clothes? Lives in a hotel?

Police told Patricia that George must have had help.

"But I don't see that at all, he was such a private person, almost no close friends. He could have planned it himself, he was very smart, talented. It's just so bizarre, it boggles the mind."

Missing persons is an area where police and families sometimes work together in an investigation, for example, in searching neighbourhoods. Historically, in missing cases, or those involving repeat youth runaways, or where police have stopped searching, it is the family that often carries the ball gathering information. Police don't have the resources to chase every case where there is not an ongoing high-risk factor for the missing person.

After more than a year missing, a case is considered historical by police. They are not closed, as police still act on information received, but they become less of a priority.

There have even been people on the city's historical list who, while officially still listed as missing, were known to be dead because their assailants were convicted. But their names remained on the system because their bodies were never found. Whenever remains are discovered, the names are there for checking.

In Hamilton, the most serious missing persons cases are also the rarest, representing about 1 per cent of the active missing files with police. These are people who have gone missing for no apparent reason, with no history of running away, and where there is potentially a high level of danger to themselves.

One of those who is on the active missing persons list, Billy Mason, 27, disappeared in February 2006. Police ultimately upgraded the search to a homicide investigation.

Missing persons has always been a job for police, but up until now investigation procedures have been mostly ad hoc. A recent protocol aims to be more efficient at identifying the cases that need attention.

Police say there was no specific missing persons case to spark the renewed protocol. Rather, it is part of their overall strategy of "improving efficiency and effectiveness in all areas."

Ostofi said missing persons protocols were lacking in the past and some reports sat on a shelf without proper attention. Search techniques have improved as well. "Everyone leaves some sort of trail," he noted.

There was one case many years ago, he said, when they searched a McDonald's parking lot in wintertime for a missing person but found nothing. The search was not thorough enough, though. Come the spring, as the snow melted, the person was found in a snowbank in the same parking lot.

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