North Bay Police Detective Helen Kent admits that Cold Cases are very difficult to solve.
“I wouldn’t say impossible but it is difficult, people become older, and we all know as we get older we forget things, we don’t remember as well as we would have at the time,” said Kent.
“But there’s often people who have pieces of information that either they think that we already know it, or they simply don’t think its pertinent enough to call us up to share with us, but those details are important to us even in the cold cases.”
The North Bay Police Service launched a new media initiative today which outlines the 14 unsolved missing persons and homicide investigations in the city of North Bay.
Throughout 2016, the police will be highlighting a case on the anniversary of when the person was reported missing.
“We would like to showcase at the anniversary of each missing person, the date that the person went missing to showcase what we know about them, that we can share with the public and hopefully elicit some new information,” said Kent.
The cold cases vary in dates; from five years for the Luke Joly-Durocher case on March 4th, to the 50th anniversary of the Phillippe Guerin missing persons investigation on June 10th.
Of the 13 missing persons files, Kent says eight of those involve missing persons with mental health issues, many who left the old North Bay Psychiatric Hospital and have never been seen since.
“We do have eight cases where there is mental health that has been one of the elements that probably contributed to this person having gone missing. And of course we are talking about people that suffer from mental health are often times more vulnerable than other members of the community which is why their numbers are somewhat over represented in our 13 outstanding missing cases,” said Kent.
Of the 14 cases, only one is an unsolved homicide. That’s the Guy Parise murder case which will hit the 30th anniversary on May 10th. Parise’s lifeless body was found behind the Davedi Club, after he was shot and killed.
“It’s frustrating not to solve a case like that, and I know in the years gone by that there has been resources, extensive resources, put into trying to solve that crime,” Kent admitted.
“At this point it does remain an open file and it’s my hope that people that do have information relating to that specific homicide at some point will come forward with what they know, so that at some point we can close this file and give some closure to the family.
“I think all the families want to hold on to hope. There are some obviously significant cases that are historical where I think the families have resolved themselves to the fact that their loved one is no longer alive, but to give them closure, that’s a huge deal for a family.”
Check out our list of missing persons on our website here: https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/do-you-know-anything-about-these-unsolved-missing-persons-and-homicide-investigations-86419
As well look for our first feature missing persons article on Steven Hector Gravel who went missing 15 years ago today. See that story here: https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/gravel-cold-case-re-opened-86483
