Need help locating someone … historic crime (Canada)

[dcMp11]

Hi, I’ve been tormented most of my life by a crime I witnessed when I was a young child (age 3-5).

It involved my neighbour, a young girl my age, who was also my friend. When I was 5 my family moved and I never saw her again.

I need to locate this woman (my friend), and try to work out what I witnessed when I was a child.

I have her first name, the address and date when she lived at the address. The family moved about a year after we did. Unfortunately, I don’t have a last name.

I need help or tips from someone with investigation skills, or advice on finding resources for locating someone.

So far, I’ve checked historical phone books (the address had an unlisted number … which was rare for the early 1980s) and the title search on the property came up with nothing, so I’m at a dead end.

I would be grateful for any help people on here can offer. I can’t afford a private investigator.

Please help.

 

[Vern]

What town/province are we speaking of?

Have you spoken with your mother or father to see if they recall a last name or your friends' parents first names? Where her mom or dad worked? How did you find out that her family moved about a year after you? The individual who knew that may recall to where they moved?

A crime ... possibly old newspaper articles etc can be searched. I'm in New Brunswick and was a teen in the 1980s and every small town paper had a "Court Appearance" section that did the weekly rundown of Little Johnnies and Lil Janes who had been caught speeding, shoplifting, etc etc etc and had it in the papers. :So & so appeared in Court of Queen's Bench today after being charged with underage drinking ..."

Post 1984 (when the Young Offender's Act) came in to play here in Canada, they stopped publishing the names of minors, but before then they were published if they were up to no good. May yield you some results based upon what the crime was, when it happened, where, age etc.

 

[Laughing]

Old US genealogist here, haven't worked with Canadian resources, but agree completely with @Vern 's suggestions.

Parent names would be a big help.

You are likely to find articles through a newspaper archive:

Research guides: Newspapers: Canada

LibGuides: Historical Canadian Newspapers Online: Ontario

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/disco...r-collection/Pages/newspapers-collection.aspx

Slow down for any pictures of carnivals, parades, holiday pageants, -- you may spot your friend.

Find the historical & genealogical societies closest to your neighborhood. Genealogists are determined & love a mystery -- remembering child first name, living at a specific address in a specific time frame is something we do.

I'm surprised at your description of the result of the title search -- no record of who owned the house in the time frame?

Were you able to find any school pictures?

Did her family attend church? If you remember the congregation, and there is a denominational structure, you may be able to write seeking to connect with your childhood friend. You would likely need to know the parent's names.

Some places & schools have informal 'hometown' Facebook pages. If there is one for the town, a vague post asking if anyone remembers a girl named (Name) in kindergarten in (year?) as you'd like to re-connect with her.

Consider contacting law enforcement & sharing what you remember. The crime you recall may have been solved -- or be part of a string of unsolved crimes that LE would like to wrap up.

Please keep us posted on anything you find.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[dcMp11]

Old US genealogist here, haven't worked with Canadian resources, but agree completely with @Vern 's suggestions.

Parent names would be a big help.

You are likely to find articles through a newspaper archive:

Research guides: Newspapers: Canada

LibGuides: Historical Canadian Newspapers Online: Ontario

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/disco...r-collection/Pages/newspapers-collection.aspx

Slow down for any pictures of carnivals, parades, holiday pageants, -- you may spot your friend.

Find the historical & genealogical societies closest to your neighborhood. Genealogists are determined & love a mystery -- remembering child first name, living at a specific address in a specific time frame is something we do.

I'm surprised at your description of the result of the title search -- no record of who owned the house in the time frame?

Were you able to find any school pictures?

Did her family attend church? If you remember the congregation, and there is a denominational structure, you may be able to write seeking to connect with your childhood friend. You would likely need to know the parent's names.

Some places & schools have informal 'hometown' Facebook pages. If there is one for the town, a vague post asking if anyone remembers a girl named (Name) in kindergarten in (year?) as you'd like to re-connect with her.

Consider contacting law enforcement & sharing what you remember. The crime you recall may have been solved -- or be part of a string of unsolved crimes that LE would like to wrap up.

Please keep us posted on anything you find.

jmho ymmv lrr

Thanks for replying, and for your suggestions.

I’ve been doing a social media search under the school I suspected she went to (we went to different schools - she went to a public school and I went to a catholic public school). I’m also not sure if her family attended a local church.

The most frustrating part is that I can’t find their last name. My mom can’t recall the family’s last name either.

I’ve been able to discover that the address had three different families living there between 1982-1989 by doing old phone book searches and a title search on the home.

The old phone books were handy because they listed information by street. Under our street, our neighbours house is listed as “Refused” in the 1986, 1987 and 1988 phone books, so clearly they didn’t want to be listed. This was unusual at the time (it looks like only about 1 per cent of addresses in these phone books are listed as “Refused”.) This was a small(ish) Canadian town in the early 1980s, so people weren’t that concerned with privacy.

The title search has been frustrating.

I paid $40 to read the title “package” for the address dating back to 1978 when the house was first built. However, the files were digitized in 1997, and anything before 1994 is not listed in this package. In Ontario, land records went completely online a few years ago, so I can’t get a person in my local land registry office to help me find historical records for that property. I’m told to go online when I call the office.

The historical records for land title information (pre-1997) have been scanned and are available online, but I wasn’t able to find anything by manually searching. The books are incredibly hard to read. I’ve gone through these digitized records, which are organized by concession road, at least a dozen times, but haven’t been able to come up with anything.

So that’s where I am at the moment. Sorry for the long story, but that paints a clearer picture of what I’ve done so far.

Again, I appreciate your help.

 

[Laughing]

@GuyfromCanada any further suggestions? (You're the only CA poster I can call!)

US records, US documents, US archives, those I know; multiple US states, too.

Did you try the historical/genealogical societies yet? Members have likely mastered that mass of scanned title documents.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[dcMp11]

That would be helpful! I really need someone who has experience searching through and reading these documents.

I reached out to our local historical society and they recommended searching our town’s archives first. If I have no luck, they said to check back in.

 

[Laughing]

Wait, do you still live in the town, or return often?

That could be a great help!

 

[dcMp11]

Wait, do you still live in the town, or return often?

That could be a great help!

I do! I moved back to the town about 7 years ago