This month marks 19 years since Lisa Marie Young disappeared and police on Vancouver Island say they are following new leads in the investigation.
Young, an Indigenous woman, disappeared in Nanaimo in the early-morning hours on June 30, 2002, in a case police consider a homicide. Investigators gave an update at a press conference at the RCMP detachment in Nanaimo on Saturday, June 26.
Many investigators have worked on the file over the 19 years and Cpl. Markus Muntener, current co-lead investigator, said new information has come to light. Muntener said there is information he can鈥檛 share, as it is an active investigation, but police have 鈥渃ompleted numerous searches in the last year.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 based on new information coming in and based on historic information and those searches were extensive and detailed and we have more of those searches planned in the future,鈥� Muntener said.
Police have employed modern technology to assist with the investigation including the use of a police dog and ground-penetrating radar.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e dealing with potential [search] areas that are large, that鈥檚 the kind of technique that you have to use to try and narrow things down just to manage the resources that you have,鈥� Muntener said.
He and co-lead investigator Const. Hayley Pinfold said investigators have been aided by people coming forward who previously weren鈥檛 comfortable talking to police.
Members of 鈥檚 family at Maffeo Sutton Park in . Young went missing in 2002.
鈥� Karl Yu (@KarlYuBulletin)
鈥淚t took great courage for those people to come forward and provide us statements and provide information that is credible and important for the investigation and a lot of those people may not have been comfortable doing that early on in this investigation,鈥� said Muntener.
There may be other people out there in the same situation and police hope they will come forward as well.
鈥淚t may just a small part of the puzzle, it鈥檚 still important information that we need those people to come forward and provide statements to us,鈥� Muntener said.
Cyndy Hall, organizer of a march that followed the press conference and one of the Lisa Marie Young Facebook page operators, described Young as friendly.
鈥淪he was just one of those people, that their mood is always the same,鈥� said Hall. 鈥淚 just remember her always being happy, dressing up, loved music. Just a typical young adult.鈥�
Young鈥檚 family continues to wait to learn of her fate, including Carol Frank, Young鈥檚 aunt.
鈥淲e just ask, as Lisa鈥檚 family, if there鈥檚 anyone out there that knows something, just to help us bring Lisa home,鈥� said Frank. 鈥淚f you could, please come forward and bring peace to Lisa and our family.鈥�
Anyone looking to provide information is asked to call Nanaimo RCMP鈥檚 non-emergency line at 250-754-2345.
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