CANADA Canada - Jake Just, 18, Midland, Ont, 30 Oct 1998

[dotr]

COLD CASE: Midland’s Jake Just still missing without a trace

 

[zencompass]

My heart breaks every time I hear about Jake being missing for so long.

I hope and pray for answers soon. Someone must know something and this is the time to speak up.

Jake's Mom needs and deserves answers as to where her son is and what happened. My heart is with Jake's dear family. I know we all feel this way.

 

[branmuffin]

There are variables that have to be taken into consideration when theorizing about Jake's disappearance.

The reality is that Jake and his friends were drinking heavily at this party. Part of the fun included breaking beer bottles over each other's heads which wouldn't exclude him suffering from a concussion. Couple that with reduced cognizance through alcohol consumption it placed him in a high risk area for injury and confusion.

According to the friend he left the party with, they split up, with Jake deciding to take the dark, untamed part of the woods to find his way home. Without knowing where exactly the bush party took place it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Jake, inebriated and possibly concussed, stumbled and fell several times which could have sent him in the wrong direction.

The Sunnyside neighbourhood of Midland is very close to Georgian Bay, anywhere from 700 to 2000 feet away. There is a huge gravel pit about the same distance on the west side of the neighbourhood. I'm not sure how localized the search for Just was based on what his companion stated. The temperature that evening was 4 degrees Centigrade which is about 39 degrees.

To add even more mystery to the mystery of Jake's disappearance is this new twist provided by a high school friend of Jake's who said after Jake was reported missing he called the Midland Police and said Jake made it out of the forest only to be dragged out of a house on Fourth St and beaten, killed and buried under a pier in an isolated area of Georgian Bay. Here's the link to the story:

Tip adds new theory to 1998 disappearance of Midland's Jake Just

The disappointing aspect to this new twist is the story appeared in the Oct 30, 2019 edition of Simcoe.com with absolutely no follow up from the OPP (who took over policing of this area).

 

[dotr]

Bumping for Jake in light of a suggestion made on this thread..
MT - MT - Flathead Co, WhtMale, 18-49, MJ Pipe, .22 Pistol w/Holster, Poker Game, Sz 11 Adidas, Oct'03

 

[CuriousKenna]

There was a newspaper article somewhat recently that said police were investigating a tip that implied Jake was a drug dealer who went to a second party and was murdered there and left under a pier in Georgian Bay. How was his body not found then? It's probably not true.

He was 18. He had a tight knit group of friends that all still hang out together today. At Bush parties, kids drink, act silly with their friends and flirt with people they have crushes on.

Was there another reason he went into the woods... did he have to pee, was he secretly hooking up with a crush, who knows.

That wooded area isn't exactly small, but it's not algonquin as someone mentioned earlier. It has thick brush and rough terrain with boggy areas that have quicksand like mud around it that would take your shoe from you. In the dark, if you're drunk, there's all kinds of trip hazards and ways to get disoriented directionally. I feel like this would have been a recipe for disaster. This was before cellphones so he wouldn't be able to call for help if he got injured. It's the elements that are deadly in that situation. Between the cold temperature drop and the bugs that eat you alive.

But you would think his clothing or backpack would have appeared in all this time.

His Mother said in a newspaper article somewhere that he knew karate. He was 6'2" and 170lbs. He was a big kid who likely could have held his own in a fight, unless there was a weapon involved I guess. One newspaper article said he was chased into the woods, others say he walked in there. Which is it?

I don't know. Does anyone know how well that forest was searched?

 

[dotr]

There was a newspaper article somewhat recently that said police were investigating a tip that implied Jake was a drug dealer who went to a second party and was murdered there and left under a pier in Georgian Bay. How was his body not found then? It's probably not true.

He was 18. He had a tight knit group of friends that all still hang out together today. At Bush parties, kids drink, act silly with their friends and flirt with people they have crushes on.

Was there another reason he went into the woods... did he have to pee, was he secretly hooking up with a crush, who knows.

That wooded area isn't exactly small, but it's not algonquin as someone mentioned earlier. It has thick brush and rough terrain with boggy areas that have quicksand like mud around it that would take your shoe from you. In the dark, if you're drunk, there's all kinds of trip hazards and ways to get disoriented directionally. I feel like this would have been a recipe for disaster. This was before cellphones so he wouldn't be able to call for help if he got injured. It's the elements that are deadly in that situation. Between the cold temperature drop and the bugs that eat you alive.

But you would think his clothing or backpack would have appeared in all this time.

His Mother said in a newspaper article somewhere that he knew karate. He was 6'2" and 170lbs. He was a big kid who likely could have held his own in a fight, unless there was a weapon involved I guess. One newspaper article said he was chased into the woods, others say he walked in there. Which is it?

I don't know. Does anyone know how well that forest was searched?

Thanks for chiming in!
Oct 30, 2019 by Rick Vanderlinde
Tip adds new theory to 1998 disappearance of Midland's Jake Just
''A leading theory was that Jake slipped into a bog in the forest — a sort of quicksand — never to be seen again.

But Gratrix doesn’t believe that’s the case.

Based on a story a trusted, life-long friend told him, Just made it out the forest only to be dragged out of a Fourth Street house party by drug dealers, beaten, killed and buried underneath an isolated pier on the shores of Georgian Bay.

“It’s a guy I’ve known since I was 10 years old and he literally just dumped all of this stuff on me,” Gratrix said. “This guy has been completely honest with me over the years.”

Gratrix said his friend knows the suspected perpetrators well and was associated with them through the drug trade over the years.

Gratrix said Jake knew the suspects, who still live in the Midland area, through the sale of cannabis during high school.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Jake sold pot. We all did. It was a thing around high school and Jake got a little bit sticky with his fingers. At least that’s how the story goes. I guess he decided he wasn’t going to pay them back.”

Jake’s mother, Debbie, doesn’t necessarily believe the story but welcomes the tip being published to keep her son’s story alive in the hope of finally finding the truth.


“It’s an awful scenario and this doesn’t honestly sound like Jake,” she said. “But who knows, maybe this will open up a door.”

 

[branmuffin]

The OPP took over policing duties from Midland Police services in February 2018. The tipster from the Simcoe story said they provided the information in May 2018 which was only 3 months after the transition.

I'd be interested to know who exactly they called, the OPP office or some cop from the defunct Midland police. Not all the employees of the Midland police department were offered jobs. Seventy percent of the active employees were looking to continue their employment but only 78% of civilians and 65% of uniformed personnel were offered jobs. Depending on where those deficiencies were, it's possible the tip got lost in the transition. Or there may have been little bit of reactive anger over lost opportunity which resulted in shoddy record keeping.

I used to work for the OPP. For the last 30 years they have systematically taken over a lot of municipal and small town police services. Sometimes they were embraced with open arms and sometimes there was resistance. What a lot of it boils down to is money or lack thereof for police funding. Being absorbed into a mammoth police service has its drawbacks and well as its positives.

Dan Gratrix, Just's high school friend called Crime Stoppers with his tip. Crime Stoppers is a non profit charitable organization that aids law enforcement; they are not the police. So depending on who he talked to at Crime Stoppers they may have been unaware of the transition of Midland OPS to the OPP and the message got lost.

However, the Simcoe news article is now 16 months old which should have given Det. Constable Robin Chiasson ample time to provide some sort of update to the information received.

 

[CuriousKenna]

The OPP took over policing duties from Midland Police services in February 2018. The tipster from the Simcoe story said they provided the information in May 2018 which was only 3 months after the transition.

I'd be interested to know who exactly they called, the OPP office or some cop from the defunct Midland police. Not all the employees of the Midland police department were offered jobs. Seventy percent of the active employees were looking to continue their employment but only 78% of civilians and 65% of uniformed personnel were offered jobs. Depending on where those deficiencies were, it's possible the tip got lost in the transition. Or there may have been little bit of reactive anger over lost opportunity which resulted in shoddy record keeping.

I used to work for the OPP. For the last 30 years they have systematically taken over a lot of municipal and small town police services. Sometimes they were embraced with open arms and sometimes there was resistance. What a lot of it boils down to is money or lack thereof for police funding. Being absorbed into a mammoth police service has its drawbacks and well as its positives.

Dan Gratrix, Just's high school friend called Crime Stoppers with his tip. Crime Stoppers is a non profit charitable organization that aids law enforcement; they are not the police. So depending on who he talked to at Crime Stoppers they may have been unaware of the transition of Midland OPS to the OPP and the message got lost.

However, the Simcoe news article is now 16 months old which should have given Det. Constable Robin Chiasson ample time to provide some sort of update to the information received.

If he went to a second party, then it's likely that a whole bunch of people saw him there. Those people likely have kids of their own now and might feel differently about keeping that secret.

Maybe those people didn't even realize they saw him at the second party (though the way high school kids gossip it seems unlikely that someone wouldn't have uncovered that fairly quickly - but strangers things have happened.) If they all thought he left the party they saw him at never to return again and no one knew there were 2 parties... Police should interview everyone again. And the public would like an update on the legitimacy of this lead.