More missing persons investigations happening in Sarnia: police

The number of missing person investigations in Sarnia has been on the rise in recent years, police officials say.

“It looks like it’s a return to some pre-COVID numbers,” Chief Derek Davis said at Thursday’s police services board meeting, but noted he doesn’t know for sure.

The number of missing persons cases in 2022 was 355, a 62 per cent spike from 2021, he said.

So far in 2023, there’ve been 50 cases, a 41 per cent bump when compared to the same time period last year.

“All I can speculate (is these are) post-COVID versus mid-COVID numbers,” Davis said.

Nearly half of all cases are 10- to 19-year-olds, according to data that service officials showed Sarnia’s police board, part of a presentation on how investigations and searches unfold, given the recent uptick.

“I think it’s quite appropriate for us as a police service to share with the board and share with the public some of the background of how missing person cases are handled and some of the steps that we’ve taken along the way,” Davis said .

const. David Ferrera, an officer with the service’s emergency response team, pointed to the recent citywide search for the late Anthony “Tony” Robertson, a 75-year-old with dementia who went missing from his home Dec. 29.

Police suspended the search on Jan. 4, Ferrera said, and Robertson’s body was discovered Jan. 12.

The “vast majority” of missing person calls are investigated and solved “within a reasonable period of time — anywhere from one to several days,” said Det.-Insp. Leo Murphy.

“The smaller portion are those very serious investigations where people are vulnerable, people are unaccounted for, or there may be some suspicious parts to the investigation.”

Robertson’s wife notified police around 8 pm, two hours after the man, considered vulnerable because of his age and medical condition, was last seen around the home, Ferrera said. A search started an hour later.

“If it is deemed urgent, we have to treat that search as an emergency, which means putting all of the available resources to that investigation and search as quickly as possible, which gives us the best chance of finding them in the best possible condition, ” Ferrera said.

A 3.2-kilometre radius was set for the search based on methodology that accounts for similar cases and where people were found, he said.

Other information can tailor searches to specific locations, he said, including information police collect about a person’s behaviors and habits.

Over the course of six days city police, the OPP and police dogs, Sarnia and Point Edward firefighters, and volunteers with the Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteers Association combed streets and residential yards across the city, he said.

An OPP helicopter flew routes one day, and a Sarnia police drone with a thermal camera, live view and 32-times digital zoom flew in the search area daily, he said.

A marine unit combed the St. Clair River.

“As you can see, a vast portion of the city was covered,” he said, referring to a map with indicators showing where searchers went.

Search and investigation personnel work collaboratively, with investigators taking tips, obtaining warrants via the Missing Persons Act of Ontario for records that might assist in the search, following leads, and passing along information to those in the field, said Det.-Sgt. John Lewis.

There’s also a national DNA database for missing persons, he noted, “but typically where the investigative team comes in is managing the amount of information coming in.”

Board member George Vandenberg thanked police for the presentation.

“I didn’t realize how much they put into this investigation,” he said about the search for Robertson. “Unfortunately, it ended sadly.”

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