Twenty three-year-old Steven Gravel was last seen by friends at a residence in North Bay shortly before midnight on December 23rd, 2000.
Police believe he left the home in a black 1990 Ford Bronco, which belonged to his stepfather. After midnight, North Bay Police Service patrol officers observed a suspected impaired male driver in a vehicle matching the description of the Ford Bronco. They tried to initiate a traffic stop at the time, but were unsuccessful.
The Ontario Provincial Police located the abandoned Ford Bronco in the area of Lake Nosbonsing Road, 200 metres east of the highway 11/654 exit in the early morning hours of December 24th, 2000. There was no evidence of injury and the driver appeared to have left the scene on foot. Police were unable to locate the driver.
The investigation at the time concluded that Steven Gravel had been operating the vehicle and had taken the vehicle without the owner’s consent.
The North Bay Police Service issued a warrant for Steven’s arrest as a result of the investigation at the time but police were unable to locate him.
Since receiving the missing person report in October 2014 by his family, police have been following up on all potential leads, however, no confirmed information points to his current whereabouts.
“We are certainly trying to go back and track Steven’s path as to where he has gone since 2000,” said North Bay Police Detective Scott Buchanan.
“The information that we had received from the family member who had reported him missing in 2014, is 14 years past so we are trying to go back and re-trace his steps to see if we can get anymore current information about his whereabouts.”
This case is especially unusual considering he was last seen in 2000, but wasn’t considered a missing person until 2014.
“It does have its difficulties for us to try and go back and re-trace his steps. The family members who contacted us do reside out of province and had lost contact with Steven prior to his disappearance back in 2000 so our public appeal is to anyone that may have had knowledge of his whereabouts more recently than 14 years ago,” said Buchanan.
Description at the time of his disappearance on December 23rd, 2000
Steven was 23 years old at the time of his disappearance and would be 38 years old today. He is described as white male, 5’10”, 150-170 pounds, brown hair, long in the back and short on top with hazel eyes. Steven was last seen wearing a dark coloured winter coat (possibly blue), blue jeans, runners and a baseball cap.
Steven is originally from Cochrane, Ontario but grew up in North Bay and is a former student of Widdifield Secondary School. He is known to have a passion for fishing, snowmobiling, mountain biking and socializing with friends.
Public Assistance is sought
Anyone with information that may assist police with the investigation is asked to contact Detective Constable Scott Buchanan, North Bay Police Service at 705-497-5550. For those who wish to remain anonymous, there are three ways to contact Near North Crime Stoppers. Call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), text the word “Nipper” plus tip information to CRIMES (274637), or submit a tip online at nearnorthcrimestoppers.com.
The Gravel case is one of 14 the North Bay Police is highlighting as they try to bring more attention and more information forward about these unsolved cases.
