Noreen Anne Greenley, 13, went missing on Sept. 14, 1963 in Bowmanville, Ont. She was believed to be spotted in Calgary shortly after her disappearance but was never found. More than 50 years later, her family is hoping they can find her alive. Greenley family / Calgary Herald
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Thirteen-year-old Noreen Anne Greenley vanished without a trace while waiting at a bus stop in Bowmanville, east of Toronto.
She was believed to be spotted in Calgary several months later, but couldn’t be located.
More than 50 years later, her family still holds out hope that she will be found. And they believe an age progression sketch will help garner fresh tips in the cold case and bring her home.
“We are never giving up hope,” said Kathleen Greenley, Noreen’s sister-in-law. “Of course, the family is still hoping she is alive.”
On Sept. 14, 1963, Noreen went bowling, ate out at a restaurant, and hung out at a friend’s house. At night, she went to catch a bus, but never got on.
According to a
blog detailing the case, a neighbour saw a Ford Prefect or Renault vehicle with a man in a fedora behind the wheel near the bus stop around the same time.
The Bowmanville Police Department
investigated the case with several searches, but they were unable to locate the teen.
An article published in the Herald on May 26, 1964, said investigators moved the search to Calgary after receiving information that she was seen in the Mount Royal area possibly “working as a domestic.”
Kathleen said Noreen’s parents flew out to Calgary to join in the search, but could not find their daughter.
Homicide investigators reopened the case in 2005 in hopes of bringing the case back into the public eye, but no tips were received.
At the time of Noreen’s disappearance, she was as a girl of five-foot-two, 100 pounds, with a slight build and fair complexion, possibly with her hair dyed black, greyish-blue eyes and a patch of dark freckles on the upper right hand side of her lips.
Now, according to an age progression sketch, Noreen at 65 years old would have softer features, thinner lips, “but her eyes would remain the same,” said forensic artist Diana Trepkov, who drew the sketch.
“Gravity takes over. But your eyes will always follow you,” Trepkov said from her Ontario home.
Trepkov said she met the family in May when she participated in a walk they had organized to remember Noreen. She offered to do the sketch in hopes it will aid with the case.
“You can tell they’ve been through mental torture. I see their pain,” she said.
Kathleen says Noreen’s disappearance “absolutely destroyed the family.”
Noreen’s father died of an aneurysm several years after she vanished. Her mother “crawled into a bottle and was never able to pull herself back out,” Kathleen said.
Noreen’s three youngest siblings ended up in foster care because their mother could no longer look after them.
The youngest sibling, Shelley, is battling cancer and doesn’t know if she’ll live long enough to see her sister’s return.
Kathleen said relatives shed tears of joy and sadness when they saw Trepkov’s sketch, imagining how Noreen would look like now.
The family has created several
Facebook pages to keep her story in the public eye, and also launched an online fundraising campaign to hire a private investigator.
“We’re trying to find her,” Kathleen said. “Noreen’s case is still open.”
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Family hopes to find missing teen who disappeared in 1963
