Family members keep searching long after the spotlight fades away

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2017 (2651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the news business, our work is often plunged in sadness. The events that seize and shake our communities are not often harmless, and so news must often tell the story of families hurt or struggling, or simply left behind.

For me, the hardest stories to encounter — as a writer and a citizen — have always been the missing.

When people vanish, they leave holes in the lives of those around them. A mother’s phone that no longer buzzes with texts from her daughter; a bedroom where their work clothes gather dust; an ache, a waiting, a horrible pause.

Stubbornly, I believe media can help. Over the years, when I have covered stories of missing people, I have held strong to the belief that putting light on them can make a difference; if it brings just one person home, it is enough.

But eventually, news of a given missing person slows to a trickle. When nothing changes and nothing is new, the rest of the world moves on to other topics. Media must, too. But the families of the missing, of course, never really do.

Sometimes, when there are no updates, people can assume the missing were found. (And sometimes, that is true.)

But what do we do when someone stays missing, and there is nothing more to say about the situation?

At least we can keep their names and images alive — hoping when hope is all there is that continuing to tell these stories will lead to a confirmed sighting or jog some memory. Hoping it will uncover some key to their fate.

With that in mind, here are the folks who vanished in Winnipeg last year who we are still searching for in 2017.

On paper, they don’t share much in common. They are of different backgrounds, ages and places. They entered the news in different circumstances, except for the one that is most important: they all vanished and stayed missing.

Christine Wood

On Aug. 19, 2016, the 21-year-old left the Polo Park-area hotel where she was staying with her parents, who were in town from Bunibonibee First Nation for a medical appointment. Her parents haven’t had any contact with her since.

So ever since she went missing, George and Melinda Wood have spent long nights combing the city, driving up and down streets where they hope she might be seen. So far, they have found no trace of her and no solid leads.

After spending the holidays at home in Oxford House with their three sons and four grandchildren, the Woods have recently returned to Winnipeg to resume the search. Despite early reports of sightings, none have been confirmed.

Christine is 5-6, and when she went missing she had dyed red hair. One of the most notable features, friends and family said, is a chipped front tooth — her upper left lateral incisor. She had broken the tooth not too long before she went missing. Friends told the Free Press it was quite noticeable when she smiled.

More on Christine Wood

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Christine Wood, missing since Aug. 19, spotted three times

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Zhimin “Maggie” Liu

In 2014, Maggie Liu moved to Winnipeg with her husband, Podge Dimagiba. The couple had met in Hong Kong and came to Canada to build a life together. For Liu, a talented graphic designer, the future must have seemed bright.

But once in Winnipeg, Liu wrestled with depression. An introvert, she struggled to make friends in Canada and seldom left the house without her husband.

Still, she was making plans for the future: shortly before she went missing she invited her mother, Chang Guiying, to come visit Winnipeg for the Chinese New Year.

That visit never happened. On Oct. 30, 2016, Maggie Liu disappeared. According to Liu’s husband, she must have left their River Heights home while he was sleeping. She is tiny, just 5-0, and was wearing a thin jacket.

So far, extensive search efforts by the Winnipeg police and volunteer groups have found no trace of her.

More on Maggie Liu

Search expands for woman who went missing

Kevin Dilk

At around 5 a.m. on Nov. 23, Kevin Dilk was at his St. Boniface home in his pyjamas. His wife saw him in his office when she left for work that morning. By the time the couple’s two adult children woke up at 8 a.m., Dilk was gone.

On most days, he would have simply been headed to Collège Béliveau where he works as a teacher. But he never showed up.

When he didn’t come home that evening, his family assumed he was staying late to prepare for the next day’s report cards and parent meetings. But when he was still absent the next morning, they realized something was wrong.

“None of this makes sense,” his sister told the Free Press later, about his disappearance. Dilk, she said, was always the rock of the family; at a birthday party just days before he went missing, he seemed his normal jovial self.

So far, little is known for certain about where Dilk may have gone. The Bear Clan received a report he may have been spotted walking on Des Meurons a day after he was reported missing; but that potential sighting is unconfirmed.

It’s not known for sure what he was wearing when he went missing. He stands about 5-9, with silver hair.

As of Jan. 12, the family wrote on the official Finding Kevin Dilk Facebook page there were no new updates.

More on Kevin Dilk

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