CANADA Canada - Ron Yakimchuk, 27, & Terry Pettit, 23, Dryden ON, 12 June 1973

Venom Goose

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Can you tell I like to post the older Canadian cases?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3615dmab.html

The Doe Network:
Case File 3615DMAB

Ron Yakimchuk
Missing since June 12, 1973 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics

* Date Of Birth: March 25, 1946
* Age at Time of Disappearance: 27 years old
* Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'10"-6'0"; 150 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Black hair; brown eyes.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Ron and his wife, Terry Pettit left Edmonton, Alberta on June 9, 1973 to head east to Montreal, in a battered Volkswagen Beetle. They were going to attend a wedding on June 16, 1973, then head to the Maritimes, where Ron hoped to land a teaching position and Terry, an Edmonton Journal reporter, intended to seek work as a journalist. En route, they stopped to visit friends near Brandon. The next day, they stopped in Dryden, Ontario, and mailed a one-word postcard to Edmonton.
They did not come to the wedding and have never been seen or heard of since.
They traveled in a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle, red with a green hood, green fender and Alberta licence CA3-262. The car was filled with a white, three-metre kayak and boxes of clothes, books and household goods.
Their bank accounts have never been touched and their Volkswagen has never shown up anywhere. Ron's life insurance has never been collected. The couple has never been declared dead.
There was talk the couple was planning to go to Europe, but police say only Terry had a passport. They may have decided against staying on the narrow, hilly Trans-Canada Highway and headed south, crossing the U.S. border at International Falls and on to Duluth, MN. It's unclear whether police ever checked on that possibility, or if there are records of their entry into the U.S.
Ron is described as laid back, and a calming influence. A farm boy from Andrew, Alta., he was described by friends as "down to Earth" and "extremely sensible and mature."

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Edmonton City Police
Det. Bernneis
780-421-3387
or
Ontario Provincial Police
Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies/Remains Unit
1-877-934-6363 - Toll Free in North America
705-330-4144 - Local or outside of North America

***

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2461dfab.html

The Doe Network:
Case File 2461DFAB

Terry Pettit
Missing since June 12, 1973 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics

* Date Of Birth: December 30, 1949
* Age at Time of Disappearance: 23 years old
* Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"; 120 lbs
* Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde, short hair; blue/green eyes. Glasses.
* Dentals: Available Terry had extensive dental work.Had worn braces for a few years.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Terry and her husband, Ron Yakimchuk left Edmonton, Alberta on June 9, 1973 to head east to Montreal, in a battered Volkswagen Beetle. They were going to attend a wedding on June 16, 1973, then head to the Maritimes, where Ron hoped to land a teaching position and Terry, an Edmonton Journal reporter, intended to seek work as a journalist. En route, they stopped to visit friends near Brandon. The next day, they stopped in Dryden, Ontario, and mailed a one-word postcard to Edmonton.
They did not go to the wedding and have never been seen or heard of since.
They traveled in a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle, red with a green hood, green fender and Alberta licence CA3-262. The car was filled with a white, three-metre kayak and boxes of clothes, books and household goods.
Their bank accounts have never been touched and their Volkswagen has never shown up anywhere. Ron's life insurance has never been collected. The couple has never been declared dead. There was talk the couple was planning to go to Europe, but police say only Terry had a passport. They may have decided against staying on the narrow, hilly Trans-Canada Highway and headed south, crossing the U.S. border at International Falls and on to Duluth, MN. It's unclear whether police ever checked on that possibility, or if there are records of their entry into the U.S.
Terry is described as an early feminist, a rabble-rouser and a free spirit who drank scotch whisky, rolled her own cigarettes and dragged pals off on adventures. Friends say she often acted on impulse. Terry graduated from high school at 16, took a year of engineering, then switched to arts. But she quit school in 1969 and joined The Journal as a proofreader, eventually working her way onto the reporting staff.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Edmonton City Police
Det. Bernneis
780-421-3387
OR
Ontario Provincial Police
Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies/Remains Unit
1-877-934-6363 - Toll Free in North America
705-330-4144 - Local or outside of North America
 
Google map route according to their Doe Net page - started in Edmonton, AB, Canada. En route, they stopped to visit friends near Brandon, MB, Canada; Dryden, Ontario. The next day, they stopped in Dryden, Ontario, and mailed a one-word postcard (Nyah) to Edmonton. A lady claims to have seen them broken down in the road Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada; but in July. I wonder if she has the date wrong; or if it was not them because the VW was missing their Kayak. Last destination was the wedding in Montreal, QC, Canada.

According to the 1st article linked below; a friend suggested the go through the US instead of running the narrow, hilly Trans-Canada Highway but it is believed they are in Lake Superior.

Answers sought in local pair's 1973 vanishing By The Edmonton Journal November 12, 2007

Sometimes when Marlene Bell sees a couple on the street, her heart stops. She thinks it might be her long-lost brother and his wife...
He doesn't know how well the case is known along the northern shore of Lake Superior where the couple had travelled. But, he theorizes, maybe someone has seen their vehicle -- a 1959 Beetle, red with a green hood, green fender and Alberta licence CA3-262 -- submerged in a lake or rusting in the woods.

"Unless we get the information out, we'll never find out. That's the wonderful thing about the Internet -- you can reach a huge audience."

In 1973, says Bell, the family became concerned after a few weeks without hearing from either of them.

City police and RCMP didn't take the matter seriously for about six months. "They said: 'Here are two able-bodied, sound-minded adults. Why are you thinking they are gone when you know they were going on a trip?' " Bell recalls.

For Montrealer Brian Campbell, every June 16 marks his wedding anniversary and another year that his friends have been missing.

"They were on their way to my wedding and they never showed up," Campbell says. "It didn't sink in immediately that they disappeared. It was not unusual for them to go off and camp and say, 'What the hell, we'll show up later.' "

It was the '70s, after all. The pair hadn't set out with firm plans, so no one became alarmed.
Proud of her Métis heritage, Terry was an "early feminist," a rabble-rouser and a free spirit who drank scotch whisky, rolled her own cigarettes and dragged pals off on adventures. Friends say she often acted on impulse.

Ron, a few years older, was more laid back, and a calming influence. A farm boy from Andrew, Alta., he was described by friends as "down to Earth" and "extremely sensible and mature."...
...Terry was fond of using an abbreviated version of the childhood taunt "nyah, nyah."

That word -- "nyah" -- was the only thing scrawled on the postcard she mailed in Dryden, Ont., to an Edmonton pal.

Ron had concerns about the old Volkswagen's reliability; friends believe the card was trumpeting their success in making it halfway through their journey without breaking down.
Another friend, Winston Gereluk, still holds hope the couple is alive.

"She told me they were going away and nobody would find them for a while," Gereluk remembers.

"When they disappeared and the first reports came out, I said I don't believe they're lost because this is what Terry told me. The fact that no trace of their car was ever found still gives me hope."...

Retired Lt.-Col. Sid Stephen, the last known person to have seen the couple, says it's possible that, for all these years, people have been searching in the wrong places.

When Ron and Terry visited at Canadian Forces Base Shilo, Stephen warned them about taking the Volkswagen over the treacherous stretch of Highway 17 along the north shore.

Stephen, another Gateway alumni who is now a teacher in Arizona, advised them to head south into the U.S. and take a less arduous route along the lake's south shore, but recalls they didn't seem too interested.

"They would have to climb some heavy hills in that old Volkswagen, but there was just a reluctance to go to the U.S. in those days. I remember Ron saying they didn't want to go to the United States, but that car was not in good condition."...

He suggests that maybe by the time the couple got to Dryden, they decided against staying on the narrow, hilly Trans-Canada Highway and headed south, crossing the U.S. border at International Falls and on to Duluth, Wis.

It's unclear whether police ever checked on that possibility, or if there are records of their entry into the U.S.

Beal wonders whether anyone has looked into records of unidentified bodies being found along the southern shore of the lake. As he points out, if they were victims of foul play, or drowned while kayaking, and their unidentified bodies were not linked with their vehicle, no one would ever know they were Canadian.

City woman believes she saw missing couple By The Edmonton Journal November 17, 2007

A city woman believes she saw a missing Edmonton couple alongside their broken down Volkswagen Beetle on a highway in Ontario after they were reported missing nearly 35 years ago.
 
From The Edmonton Journal Nov 17, 2007 link..
If this sighting is accurate, wonder who the other man was, and what were his intentions?


"There was a tall, slim fellow with dark hair and ... a hippy hair cut," she says. "He was standing more in the ditch. There was this other man and woman and they were on the left hand side in front of the vehicle. I couldn't see the man particularly well. He was pretty well behind the woman. He wasn't much taller than her."

She says the woman was "quite little with blondish hair."

McCroary says she initially thought the man and woman who were standing together must have been the missing couple, but she now suspects the man behind the woman was not Yakimchuk because there was a significant height difference between Terry and Ron.

"They were standing very close together," she says. "Whether he was threatening her or what, I don't know. They didn't wave or anything. They just stood there."
 
I travel northern ontario on a regular basis heading to the west coast and back. I often think of this couple.

There is a large search currently underway near Orangeville Ontario for a missing child due to a tragedy.

A searcher recently found the frame of an old volkswagon. It has been in water or submerged for a very long time. While it is way out of route a lot of us that follow these cases know sometimes anything is possible. I've asked them if they are able to get Vin# and if police will be notified. I will follow through on it.

The last thing I read was that police had found a shell of a volkswagon in Longlac. Ontario. Was this their car?
 
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3615dmab.html
attachment.php
attachment.php

Ronald Paul Yakimchuk
Missing since June 1, 1973 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'10"-6'0"; 150 lbs.

Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; brown eyes.

Marks, Scars: Faint scar over bridge of nose; mole on shoulder blade.

Jewelry: Braided silver wedding ring.

TPettit.jpg
TPettit1.jpg
TPettit2.jpg

Theresa Anne Pettit
Missing since June 1, 1973 from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'4"; 120 lbs

Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Blonde, short hair; blue/green eyes. Glasses.

Jewelry: Braided silver wedding ring.

Dentals:Terry had extensive dental work. Had worn braces for a few years.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2461dfab.html
 

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June 16 2018
DNA could crack the 45-year-old cold case of Edmonton missing couple
DNA could crack the 45-year-old cold case of Edmonton missing couple
yakimchuk-vehicle.jpg
This is "The vehicle Ron and Terry Yakimchuk were driving when they disappeared in 1973. At the time, they had a kayak mounted on the roof."
"If DNA evidence related to an Edmonton couple who seemingly vanished 45 years ago en route to eastern Canada is ever discovered, that may crack the case, say city police.

Ron and Terry Yakimchuk disappeared 45 years ago this month. The popular couple set off from Edmonton in an old beat-up Volkswagon Beetle, planning to attend a wedding in Montreal before settling in the Maritimes.

The last anyone reportedly heard from them was a postcard sent from Dryden, Ont."
“With the advent of the National DNA Databank, new technology along with being open to any new witnesses who may come forward locating the Yakimchuks is still possible,” he said."
"Harrison said he is regularly in contact with family members of the couple."
 
If the car broke on the way, they probably take the time away by driving during the night. North of Lake Superior, there is a place called Jackfish and there is a lake (Jackfish lake) near the road and it is located at the end of a curve. If Ronald-Paul was driving and fell asleep, the car may have plunged into the lake and nobody saw them. I think we should take a pole and go and sound the bottom of the lake.
 
If the car broke on the way, they probably take the time away by driving during the night. North of Lake Superior, there is a place called Jackfish and there is a lake (Jackfish lake) near the road and it is located at the end of a curve. If Ronald-Paul was driving and fell asleep, the car may have plunged into the lake and nobody saw them. I think we should take a pole and go and sound the bottom of the lake.
Around here? Welcome to Ws btw!
خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏
 
They wouldn't have been the easiest target to abduct, especially a car like that.

There's been quite a few discovered sunk cars and their occupants in recent years that have solved long term disappearances.

Off the top of my head the VW was air cooled and being summer probably ran hot during the day since the car wasn't in best shape. Maybe they decided due to that to travel at night in cooler conditions for the car and went off the road due to fatigue on such a long trip and into the water or a forest bed hidden for decades.
 
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I travel northern ontario on a regular basis heading to the west coast and back. I often think of this couple.

There is a large search currently underway near Orangeville Ontario for a missing child due to a tragedy.

A searcher recently found the frame of an old volkswagon. It has been in water or submerged for a very long time. While it is way out of route a lot of us that follow these cases know sometimes anything is possible. I've asked them if they are able to get Vin# and if police will be notified. I will follow through on it.

The last thing I read was that police had found a shell of a volkswagon in Longlac. Ontario. Was this their car?
Any update to the recovered Beetle? News articles etc ?

Another possibility was that they travelled (or were taken) south from their last known location, Dryden. If you were to do so, but with the expectation to continue in an easterly direction, you would turn east at St Paul Minnesota, and most assurely you would atleast stop there.

Namus lists 2 Does in Hennepin County, showing them in very close proximity on the map. The dates given are 31 Dember 1973 and 1974, my guess is they are tentative dates and the bodies were found sometime during those years. One is definitely a white female, and the other is listed as a pre 30s adult... possibly? Would love to get more info on these...
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
 
<modsnip: Quoted post was removed>

Thunder Bay is not Dryden, it is 4 hours east of Dryden.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Edmonton Journal
Jun 03, 2018
45 years since Edmonton couple vanished en route to Montreal | Edmonton Journal
''Terry Yakimchuk had been a reporter at the Edmonton Journal while her spouse was editor of Poundmaker, the city’s alternative newspaper.''

''On their trip, the Yakimchuks had intended to stop for a wedding in Montreal. Mickleburgh doubted they could make it in time, leading to a bet with Terry Yakimchuk.

He received their last known correspondence: a postcard from Dryden, Ont., that simply read “Nyaaah.”
 
This is a pic of Ron and Terry in the 1959 VW Beetle.

From website Justice for Native Women

Yakimchuk%2Bvehicle.JPG


So sad, if you enlarge the image you can see both of them pretty clearly. No indication of when/why the pic was taken so the other individuals in the pic may have no bearing on their disappearance whatsoever.
 
Some posts and images have been removed. Please do not discuss them on the thread.

Thank you.
 
Bumping case up. It's a very interesting one.
I wonder if there is a DNA profile for either of the UIDs mentioned above by Nate_Bro.
 
Theresa Yakimchuk, Missing from Alberta since 1973. | Justice for Native People (justicefornativewomen.com)
1405013607_89ab.jpg

YAKIMCHUK_theresa.jpg


''If you have any information regarding the disappearances of Theresa and/or Ron Yakimchuk, you are encouraged to contact the Edmonton Police at 1-780-423-4567.

DOB: Unknown, circa 1950
Description: Theresa was 5'4 and 120 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She wears a braided wedding ring and glasses.
Tribal Information: Unknown. Sources disagree on Theresa's ethnicity with some identifying her as white and others as indigenous.''
 
I can't find more recent news. However, I was reading an article about a car and remains recently found after 10 years. The person that found them was searching for them with a drone, spotted a car in a pond, and got permission from the property owner to search the pond.

We know this couple made it as far as Dryden. I doubt they would have driven another 20 plus hours to Montreal without contacting someone. I wish we had some volunteer drone operators in Dryden and east from there to search some ravines or bodies of water near the road. I realize it would be a huge undertaking. It would take a long time to do it probably years. However, if just the area from Dryden east to where their next stop would probably be, they might be found or part of the route eliminated.
 

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