CANADA Canada - Joshua Jeffs, 23, Revelstoke, BC, 19 Dec 2013

A man in Revelstoke, B.C., has been searching six straight months for the remains of a Winnipeg man who vanished in the woods after a police chase three years ago.

Joshua Jeffs, 23, originally from Winnipeg, drove a stolen vehicle up a dead-end logging road south of Revelstoke on Dec. 19, 2013. With police in pursuit, he jumped out of the car and ran into the dense brush and was never heard from again.
Roland Lamarre, 49, has driven his motorcycle about 40 kilometres nearly every day since April to the spot Jeffs was last seen. He combs the brush until sun-down, looking for bones and shreds of the clothing Jeffs was last seen wearing.
"These are missing people that need to be found and brought home to their loved ones, and as far as I know, there's nobody else out there that does what I do," Lamarre said during a call from the only payphone in Revelstoke.
​Revelstoke RCMP and search and rescue crews did extensive ground and air searches for Jeffs the first four days after he went missing, as well as several times since. But even after the snow had melted the following spring, they found no trace of him.

Click to expand...

Ehlert believes her son succumbed to the elements. He was wearing a T-shirt at the time.

"The creek is partly flowing, in December even, and he ran through it," she said.
Ehlert has hitchhiked to Revelstoke twice before — first in May 2014 — to help the city's search and rescue team look for Jeffs.
Upon arriving, Ehlert learned the team was not ready to conduct the search, she says. She hitchhiked back to Manitoba and waited to hear from search and rescue.
In June, she says she was told the search was on, and again, she hitchhiked there to participate. Nothing was found.
Days later, she read in online media reports that there would be no more searches for her son.
As time went on, it only became more difficult for Ehlert to accept her son's disappearance, she says.
"Once the snow starts going, it really hits me," she said.
"I realize he's out there and no one's going to find him. No one's even looking for him."
Now, she goes alone, determined to find his remains.
On Wednesday, she left The Pas on foot, walking several miles before someone picked her up and drove her to Calgary, Alta.
After much more walking and a number of rides, she arrived in Revelstoke on Friday, her feet covered in blisters.
While she says some people have offered to help her search where Jeffs was last seen, no one has joined her to look for him yet.
"I need some kind of closure," Ehlert said.
She says she is aware that animals may have dispersed his remains, but she's desperate to find something — anything — that will show her what happened to her son.
"I realize people die every day. It's just a little bit different when your kid is missing," she said. "He's not resting anywhere."

Click to expand...

Jeffs was described as being 5’11” in height and 160 lbs with brown hair and eyes, and several tattoos on his arms.

“If you are a parent you will understand my family’s need to locate my son’s remains,” Charlene Ehlert said in a Facebook message to The Revelstoke Current. “I do understand some people look down on son because he decided to run into the bushes when the police were in pursuit of him. But he is still my child, I never loved him less for the wrong choices he has made. Just as I’m sure you wouldn’t if your child made those choices, as well.”

Click to expand...