March 29, 2019
Video, lengthy article.
The mysterious disappearance of Trinity Poil
"PETAWAWA, Ont. — Trinity Poil’s family celebrated her 17th birthday on Thursday without her.
There was a cake. Her present was neatly wrapped. But for six weeks now, there hasn’t been a trace of Trinity.
“Hopefully we can celebrate with her if she comes home tonight or tomorrow,” said Trinity’s mother, Tammy Poil. “Or the next minute. Or the next hour….”
“I don’t sleep a lot any more,” said her stepfather, Patrick Reddick, a corporal in the 2nd Service Battalion at Garrison Petawawa. “I’m waking up to every little sound, hoping the door will open and she’ll just walk in.”
The last sign of Trinity was the trail of footprints she left in the heaviest snowfall of the winter, steps that led down the driveway, then were swept away by a passing snowplow.
Trinity, who stands 6-1 and weighs 240 lbs, had simply vanished.
“We have gone through every second of every minute of that day trying to find any kind of logic as to why she would leave,” Tammy said. There had been no arguments. Patrick and Trinity had spent the night before playing video games in the basement. She seemed herself, with no sign of unhappiness or worry."
"She had never left home before. Trinity is on the autism spectrum and has difficulty navigating the most basic social interactions. Her life revolves around computers and video games, like Cuphead and Undertale. Her social contacts were in gaming communities on Twitch, Steam and Discord, online networks where she found the friends she couldn’t make in real life."
Did she wander off and get lost in the blizzard? Did she get picked up by someone she’d met online? Is she hanging out in someone’s basement, immersed in the online world, oblivious to her distraught family and the passage of time?
“She’s not the kind of kid who goes for a walk — ever,” Tammy said. “She stays home and works on her electronics. People ask me, ‘Where could she have gone?’ Well, the only place she would have gone was school and school was closed that day.”
A photo of Trinity with her mom, Tammy Poil. PROVIDED / Postmedia
"Trinity had trouble dealing with other students and Serviss helped her to understand the difference between a simple disagreement and true bullying, which Trinity sometimes faced.
Academically, Trinity’s grades were in the 90s, especially in classes that involved screen time. She taught herself to program in Java, C++ and html.
“She was nine when I realized she was smarter than I was,” Tammy said. “She came home from school talking about algorithms."
“She’s very quick to trust. She wants so badly to have friends and fit in that I think she would be easily coerced. Someone could have said, ‘Come over to my place and we’ll play video games or work on a project and she might actually do it,” Tammy said."
"Anyone who has any information about Trinity Poil’s whereabouts is asked to call Military Police at 613-687-5511 ext. 5444 or missingkids.ca at 1-866-Kid-Tips."
