CANADA Canada - Emma Fillipoff, 26, Victoria BC, 28 Nov 2012

[Wondergirl]

the bus does go all the way to Sooke too....so if she was living in shelter downtown, she may have felt her ''stuff'' was safer in Sooke.

Given that she worked in a fish & chip shop I have wondered if she had some connections with local fishermen given that that shop most likely had a few local suppliers. Again this may lead to Sooke FWIW & MOO

That fish and chip "shop" is actually, literally, an old freight shipping container, and is located literally right in the dock of the very busy Harbor.

So that is one main reason why I have trouble reconciling her paranoid, skittish demeanor, with the demeanor required to work at such a busy, touristy location.

That place always has a line up and is not a laid back place to work.

Yes it's possible and quite likely she had many contacts there. She would have been in contact with many tourists as well.

I can honestly say that the locals just wouldn't stand in that long a line to get fish.

Jmo

 

[newone]

I checked the FB page for Emma being missing ... the whole van thing is confusing for sure.

(a) how long had the van been at Chateau parking lot - was it in danger of being towed there or did she pay for parking?

(b) was the van operable ?

(c) did she have valid insurance/ registration etc or had it expired?

(d) I had ''assumed'' that since the van had been towed from Sooke that the van was not operational -- we don't know the date of that tow either.
couldn't see this on the FB

 

[Lalalacasbah]

That fish and chip "shop" is actually, literally, an old freight shipping container, and is located literally right in the dock of the very busy Harbor.

So that is one main reason why I have trouble reconciling her paranoid, skittish demeanor, with the demeanor required to work at such a busy, touristy location.

That place always has a line up and is not a laid back place to work.

Yes it's possible and quite likely she had many contacts there. She would have been in contact with many tourists as well.

I can honestly say that the locals just wouldn't stand in that long a line to get fish.

Jmo

I love that fish n chips place, and it's true it's always quite busy, it's also seasonal. They just opened up again for the year on Feb 14th.

I'll have to disagree about one thing though….I am a local and I've waited many times in that line up lol! It's worth the wait

 

[Lalalacasbah]

the bus does go all the way to Sooke too....so if she was living in shelter downtown, she may have felt her ''stuff'' was safer in Sooke.

Given that she worked in a fish & chip shop I have wondered if she had some connections with local fishermen given that that shop most likely had a few local suppliers. Again this may lead to Sooke FWIW & MOO

That would make sense for her belongings to be safer in Sooke and away from the downtown/transient crowd, not to mention there's nowhere cheap downtown to keep the van parked long term.

Do we know where she parked the van in Sooke? It's illegal to street park a vehicle uninsured, so did she have a place in Sooke it was kept as I'm assuming the van probably wasn't insured. Did she know someone out there who let her park it on their land I wonder? I'm baffled by Sooke. It is pretty and on the water, so that could've been the draw like you say.

 

[Lalalacasbah]

Okay, got caught up on the case, did some refreshing and reading of the thread and the FB page and there's something that concerns me. What concerns me is the timing.

If you think about it - what are the odds that at this particular time Emma reaches out to phone her mom about coming home, takes steps to buy that cell phone, goes as far as to get part way to the airport, brings her van all the way downtown from Sooke, etc. She was preparing.

It sounds like Emma was determined no matter her frame of mind. And then what are the odds, that after doing all that preparing, it's the last time anyone sees her? It's too timed.

This makes me think either she had a plan for herself alone or she confided in a friend/associate or *someone* that she was returning home and they wanted to stop her somehow. If there is another person involved for some reason I don't think it's someone random or a stranger.

The only stranger/random possibility I thought of was maybe if she got out of the cab and hitchhiked back to town, that something or someone possibly scared or traumatized her and that put her in a sort of state of shock, hence being in a strange state back downtown and barefoot. The timing of this is just too coincidental, JMO.

If she was preparing herself to travel somewhere other than home back east, I think she would have prepared differently and packed more for the outdoors. The cell phone doesn't say she was going to live rustic in the woods to me, I think she was was planning a short term trip either mainland or east to her mom and her trip was intercepted either by her own will or someone who didn't want her to leave.

 

[newone]

Okay, got caught up on the case, did some refreshing and reading of the thread and the FB page and there's something that concerns me. What concerns me is the timing.

If you think about it - what are the odds that at this particular time Emma reaches out to phone her mom about coming home, takes steps to buy that cell phone, goes as far as to get part way to the airport, brings her van all the way downtown from Sooke, etc. She was preparing.

It sounds like Emma was determined no matter her frame of mind. And then what are the odds, that after doing all that preparing, it's the last time anyone sees her? It's too timed.

This makes me think either she had a plan for herself alone or she confided in a friend/associate or *someone* that she was returning home and they wanted to stop her somehow. If there is another person involved for some reason I don't think it's someone random or a stranger.

The only stranger/random possibility I thought of was maybe if she got out of the cab and hitchhiked back to town, that something or someone possibly scared or traumatized her and that put her in a sort of state of shock, hence being in a strange state back downtown and barefoot. The timing of this is just too coincidental, JMO.

If she was preparing herself to travel somewhere other than home back east, I think she would have prepared differently and packed more for the outdoors. The cell phone doesn't say she was going to live rustic in the woods to me, I think she was was planning a short term trip either mainland or east to her mom and her trip was intercepted either by her own will or someone who didn't want her to leave.

I like your synopsis....I wonder if that cab ride was within hours of her mom's arrival? It seems odd to me that her mom ''missed her by three hours''.....that's just too odd for me. IF she was really wanting to wait ((even all night)) to await her mom's arrival at the airport I can see her doing that. Did she leave 3 hrs before her mom got there to collect her things from her van and got intercepted???

 

[evafiore]

I like your synopsis....I wonder if that cab ride was within hours of her mom's arrival? It seems odd to me that her mom ''missed her by three hours''.....that's just too odd for me. IF she was really wanting to wait ((even all night)) to await her mom's arrival at the airport I can see her doing that. Did she leave 3 hrs before her mom got there to collect her things from her van and got intercepted???

I'd considered that as well (that she was going to meet her mother at the airport), which would explain why she was headed to the airport without her passport. Though I'm not exactly clear on if she was fully aware that her mother was coming---her mother indicates that she booked a ticket to see Emma, despite her requests not to. Has anyone seen clarification of this?

Another question I had about the timeline was the van---some sources state that it had been towed from the lot that morning (see timeline/map below), which she discussed with staff, but then I see other reports that indicate that was where it was found, with all of her belongings. If it had been towed there from Sooke on the 21st, and had been towed away from the Victoria lot as of the morning of the 28th, why was it back in the lot after she'd disappeared?

View attachment 70916

As far as keeping it in Sooke, and towing it to Victoria 1 week prior to her disappearance, it sounds like she was preparing to go. Not sure, but she probably knew someone in Sooke who agreed to let her park her van there, away from the bigger city. I would assume that it was undriveable---1993 Mazda minivan would have been 17 years old then, could have been an expensive (and unjustifiable) repair (transmission, maybe?).

 

[shelley fillipoff]

Emma moved back out west to look for work as a chef. She did work for a popular seafood restaurant in the inner harbour, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

 

[shelley fillipoff]

Emma's last words to me were please don't come, not today mom. Having spoken with her 4 times over the weekend going back and forth "come, don't come,I'm just having a bad day", I decided to go against her wishes and fly out. She did not know I was coming.

I believe she chose Sook as it was much cheaper than city storage. It was towed back a few days before her disappearance, she told the driver that she was packing it up to send her belongings home on the bus and that she was then going to fly home. This took place before the phone calls started. I believe she chose the Chateau Vic parking lot, even though I imagine it was expensive, because it was just down the hill from the Sandy Merriman women's shelter and therefore could access t easily.

Shelley

 

[shelley fillipoff]

You raise excellent points. All things that have has us all wondering and very worried. She told the tow truck driver that she was heading home to surprise her family. To me, she has not disappeared of her own accord - whether it be that she is so ill that she does not remember who she is or someone is holding her is anyone's guess but she definitely was planning on coming home up until her disappearance.

Shelley

 

[evafiore]

Emma's last words to me were please don't come, not today mom. Having spoken with her 4 times over the weekend going back and forth "come, don't come,I'm just having a bad day", I decided to go against her wishes and fly out. She did not know I was coming.

I believe she chose Sook as it was much cheaper than city storage. It was towed back a few days before her disappearance, she told the driver that she was packing it up to send her belongings home on the bus and that she was then going to fly home. This took place before the phone calls started. I believe she chose the Chateau Vic parking lot, even though I imagine it was expensive, because it was just down the hill from the Sandy Merriman women's shelter and therefore could access t easily.

Shelley

Many thanks for clarifying this Shelley. I sincerely hope for the best for Emma, you, and your family.

I'm sure that a lot of what I've suggested has been reviewed repeatedly, but I'd really like to help, though I'm not in Victoria. To clarify, was her van towed from the Chateau Vic lot at one point (the note on the image I posted above suggests it was)? Would there be any possibility that she was at the Juan de Fuca library that day?

 

[newone]

https://www.google.com/maps/place/G...4!3m1!1s0x548f749119043301:0xf218289b88eb2ff5


looks to me like Emma had planned well -- parking lot so close to bus station too.....greyhound is an excellent way to send parcels home.....perhaps she needed packing supplies as one often accumulates ''more stuff'' after being away for a while....

Is it possible that there was a ''deal in the works'' for scrapping and/or selling the van? I wonder if she used kijiji or craigslist to sell the van?

an example like this?

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-auto-towing-...scrap-cars-victoria-bc-250-588-7172/425256596

 

[newone]

The cell phone could have been a useful tool if she was going to list her van for sale and take calls. The prepaid credit card could be loaded with the proceeds.

There are people more tech savvy than me who might be able to see if there was an ad on kijiji for her van. MOO

privacy may have been hard to come by in a shelter and I wonder if she was nervous about people watching her and trying to rob her.

I wonder if there was someone who was watching her and who may in the past saw her as a ''soft touch'' for $$.

 

[newone]

I noticed that Chateau Victoria has a parkade.....I am scratching my head wondering just how a tow truck could get into the parkade with a van in tow? Anyhoo, it seems to me there would be security cams in the parkade and/or at least a security guard given that it is a tourist location.

 

[newone]

If she told the tow truck driver she was planning on surprising her family with her return to the East, did he ask or hear what her plans were for her vehicle?

If she needed suggestions, I think he would recall that -- JMO

 

[newone]

omg.....I just realized the date...it was a Wednesday....the last Wednesday of the month....party day for those who like to overindulge...very risky time on the streets MOO....

Welfare Wednesday is often associated with overdoses and violence due to substance abuse.

Police could have really had their hands full ..... MOO

here's a link

http://www.carbc.ca/FactsStats/AODMonitoring/VancouverPoliceData.aspx

 

[newone]

I am wondering if someone ''owed'' Emma some $$ and she decided to collect it -- that's why the WW (Welfare Wednesday) sends chills.

I have faith that there will be some resolution to this .... Victoria is just not that big of a town.

 

[lynck]

Disagree. Doubtful anything like that would happen unless the individual was directly linked to the drug trade, and it wouldn't likely be downtown.

This is a puzzling case, and I'm definitely keeping an eye out in the Sooke/Victoria/Langford areas, though I don't travel into town often. Could just be a matter of luck though, people run into people here all the time unexpectedly

 

[lynck]

Shelley did she have any nicknames that might help sleuthing efforts?

 

[newone]

Disagree. Doubtful anything like that would happen unless the individual was directly linked to the drug trade, and it wouldn't likely be downtown.

This is a puzzling case, and I'm definitely keeping an eye out in the Sooke/Victoria/Langford areas, though I don't travel into town often. Could just be a matter of luck though, people run into people here all the time unexpectedly

Not suggesting that Emma was involved in anything risky but given that she was an empathetic soul from all descriptions of her compassionate nature was thinking that she may have befriended or assisted some folks who may ''dabble'' or who may have been loaned $$ by her in past.