CANADA Canada - Neil McDougall, 40, Ayton, Ont, 12 Oct 1985

Two decades after Durham demolition worker Neil James McDougall vanished police are finally looking for evidence to convict his killer.

The McDougall investigation “is getting down to the meat and potatoes,” West Grey Police Sgt. Jeff Beselaere said. It was reopened in earnest a year ago. He expects a resolution one way or another within six weeks.

Although insurers finally declared McDougall legally dead in 1996 — a struggle that took wife, Mary Ellen, through despair, desperation, a suicide attempt, three lawyers and a private investigation — his case became primarily an unsolved homicide investigation only last spring.

That was after Mary Ellen McDougall and Mary Ellen Rodriguez, an Ohio clairvoyant she befriended 18 months ago, asked West Grey Police Services to again open the investigation she believes was misdirected for years by “the perpetrators.”

Neil McDougall went out after supper Friday, Oct. 12, 1985, and never came back. His wife has always believed he was killed that night.

The case is one of five unsolved suspected homicides profiled in The Sun Times this past week.

If not for information she and psychic Rodriguez discovered, police would not have reopened the investigation, Mary Ellen McDougall believes.

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=828883&auth=Bill+Henry

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1917dmon.html

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=822165
Posted 2 years ago

This week, The Sun Times profiles five of our neighbours whose disappearances or murders remain unsolved. They include Lois Marie Hanna and Lisa Leona Maas, two women who disappeared without a trace within two weeks of each other in July 1988, although their cases are otherwise unrelated. And we’ll tell you the stories of Neil James McDougall, who vanished in October 1985, Gregory Murray Lembke, who was killed in January 1992, and Gregory Dale Stoutenburg, who was killed in February 2004. Police have identified either “persons of interest” or potential suspects in all five of these cases.

Click to expand...

http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightCanada/ar/t2666.htm
a couple of articles about James located here.

http://www.bayshorebroadcasting.ca/news_item.php?NewsID=85811

Neil McDougall of Durham, was 40 at the time of his disappearance.

He was last seen October 12th, 1985 around 2 AM when he left a home in Ayton... His vehicle was located near the point McDougall was last seen...

The Government of Ontario is now offering the 50 thousand dollar reward, hoping to solve the cold case.

Click to expand...

http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2016/07/02/50000-reward-heats-up-durham-cold-case

The OPP announced the reward, which is offered by the Ontario government, to coincide with Ayton's homecoming event this weekend, McDougall's wife, Mary Ellen McDougall, said Saturday in an interview...

McDougall left Durham Three-Way Demolition early the Friday of his disappearance. A co-worker followed him home. They had a discussion and the man left. After supper McDougall went to Ayton to look for the co-worker, without success, at the Commercial Hotel. He left the hotel with someone else, before closing time, and they met up elsewhere with the co-worker. McDougall was last reported alive at 2 a.m. Oct. 13, 1985...

During the first weeks and months after McDougall disappeared, police officers, tracking dogs, volunteers, family and friends, OPP divers and a helicopter scoured fields, roadside ditches, river and stream banks and the Ayton reservoir.

Click to expand...

CRIME HUNTER: Rose West wore pants in House of Horrors
Feb 29 2020


Neil McDougall was last seen on Oct. 12, 1985.

UNSOLVED 2.0

NEIL McDOUGALL

411: McDougall, 40, was last seen on Oct. 12, 1985, around 2 a.m. leaving his residence in the Village of Ayton, Ont. His 1979 GMC pickup truck was later discovered a short distance away from that residence. The province is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for McDougall’s disappearance.

CONTACT: The Director of OPP Criminal Investigation Services at 1-888-310-1122 or 705- 329-6111, or your nearest police authority, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

1917DMON - Neil James McDougall



''Name: Neil James McDougall
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: October 12, 1985
Location Last Seen: Durham, Ontario, Canada

Physical Description
Date of Birth: May 25, 1945
Age: 40 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 183 cm (6'0")
Weight: 77 kg (169 lbs.)
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Identifiers
Dentals: Unknown, upper dental plate.
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Neil James McDougall, demolition worker and part-time garbage contractor, left Durham Three-Way Demolition early on Friday, October 12, 1985. A coworker followed him home. They had a discussion and the coworker left. After supper, Neil went to Ayton to look for the coworker, without success, at the Commercial Hotel. He left the hotel with someone else, before closing time, and they met up elsewhere with the coworker. Neil was last reported alive at 2:00 A.M. on October 13, 1985.

His vehicle was discovered near Ayton later that day. Neil was fastidious about his vehicles. He hated the smell of tobacco and never allowed smoking in his vehicle. When his pickup truck was discovered, the ashtray was filled with different brands of cigarette butts.

Since his disappearance, Neil has not accessed his bank accounts or used his credit cards. He has been described as meticulous, habitual, responsible and hardworking. When he went missing, He was planning to adopt his wife's children.

Foul play is strongly suspected. Neil McDougall was declared legally dead in 1996.

In 2016, it was announced that investigators were offering a $50,000 reward for information regarding Neil McDougall's disappearance. The case remains active.''

May 10 2023
''Nick Oldrieve, the group’s executive director, said a 40-person group held extensive grid searches looking for Joseph Moore, Lois Hanna and Neil McDougall over the past three weeks in Kincardine, Holyrood and Ayton.

The group is planning to return to those locations with the same 40 volunteers and will search every other Sunday beginning on June 4 until their search of the areas is complete, Oldrieve said.

In all three cases, the individuals have been missing for at least a decade.

“I do believe there would still be something there if these individuals passed away on the surface of the ground and were never buried,” he said. “I believe these areas need to be searched, so we’re forming a team ourselves . . . we never wave the white flag. There will always be locations to search.”

''Please Bring Me Home is searching in a wooded area in Ayton west of the river in a search for McDougall. Oldrieve said the search is being conducted in an area where witnesses reported seeing suspicious men exiting the woods a week after McDougall’s disappearance. McDougall of Durham was last seen on Oct. 12, 1985.'