"Montreal police have asked assistance in locating..." for decades such phrases were - and remain - common in newspapers, creating an inverted cases in which media outlets reverse their mission by trying to receive information rather than offer information.
As a result, the missing alerts create an itch that goes unscratched, as all wonder: why were these people missing and what became of them?
A quick perusal of Montreal Gazettes finds countless cryptic reference to each of these missing folk pictured. Their subsequent fates remain unknown. All but one of them, anyway, who in recent years was charged with murder for a death of a woman in the Montreal area (later reduced to manslaughter).
Top row from right to left: Lynn McRonald, 15, 6 weeks missing, 5'4," 115 lbs, 6 March 1968
Isabelle Bilodeau, 16, Laval, 6 weeks gone, 5'3", 126 lbs, 26 Feb 1992
Yvonne Henry, 38, Pierrefonds, 3 weeks missing, depressive, 5'8", 130 lbs 6 June 1994
Elias Guadalupe Rodas 16, form Ogilvy Ave., 3 weeks. 5 feet, 136 lbs, 6 June 1994
Klaas Meindersma Comte Street in VSL 5 weeks 6'3" 185 lbs, mental illness, 24 Nov 1979
Maicha Levensohn, 68, 4930 St. Kevin Street, one week, 5'11," 140 lbs, 24 Jan 1967
Bottom row
Bottom row
Timothy Sharpe 15 of NDG 5 months, 5'4," 120 lbs, Jan 17, 1970
Suzanne Letourneau, 18, 5'4", 115 lbs, 13 Jan 1969, four months missing.
Vito Senerchia, 15, from Sauve Street, 5'0", 140 lbs, 11 Oct. 1968
Slvianne Barriault 16, 2 weeks, 5'0", 102 lbs, 26 Feb 1992
Leslie Pereira 16, 5'2", 85 lbs, 28 May 1970
Leslie Pereira 16, 5'2", 85 lbs, 28 May 1970
Leda Kobylansky 5'4" 130 lbs, 9 Jan 1967
Some disappearances are not sad, as young people sometimes flee unpleasant home lives for something better (a realization which led pop anthem Runaway Train singer to express regret about his big youth-gone-missing anthem).
At the other end of the disappearance continuum, many other missing persons are missing because they suffered unspeakably sad fates and are no longer alive.
And, of course, and in some cases, like the curious case of NDG missing girl Reet Jurvetson, the family fails to even report the disappearance of a loved one to the police.
A quick peek through newspaper archives reveals nothing about the later fates of the missing people pictured.
The only one who returned to the news pages is the one with the biggest smile, Sylvianne Barriault (bottom row, fourth from left) who, in June 2012, along with her boyfriend, prison guard, Andy St-Gelais, robbed and killed bar employee Linda Bonnette. The couple tied her and burned the victim to death in her car in Blainville after robbing her of a few hundred dollars. Barriault pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2013. She cited an unhappy childhood in foster homes for her antisocial behaviour.
We hope the rest of those who went through the harrowing separation from their loved ones enjoyed better fates.
Some disappearances are not sad, as young people sometimes flee unpleasant home lives for something better (a realization which led pop anthem Runaway Train singer to express regret about his big youth-gone-missing anthem).
At the other end of the disappearance continuum, many other missing persons are missing because they suffered unspeakably sad fates and are no longer alive.
And, of course, and in some cases, like the curious case of NDG missing girl Reet Jurvetson, the family fails to even report the disappearance of a loved one to the police.
A quick peek through newspaper archives reveals nothing about the later fates of the missing people pictured.
The only one who returned to the news pages is the one with the biggest smile, Sylvianne Barriault (bottom row, fourth from left) who, in June 2012, along with her boyfriend, prison guard, Andy St-Gelais, robbed and killed bar employee Linda Bonnette. The couple tied her and burned the victim to death in her car in Blainville after robbing her of a few hundred dollars. Barriault pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2013. She cited an unhappy childhood in foster homes for her antisocial behaviour.
We hope the rest of those who went through the harrowing separation from their loved ones enjoyed better fates.