RCMP revisit woman's 2005 disappearance

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When 80-year-old Rhody Lake vanished while out for a walk on the Sunshine Coast just north of Vancouver, the community turned out to join police in an exhaustive search.

But no trace of the writer and artist was ever found, not on the woodland trails she loved, or along the highway where she was last seen walking toward the small town of Sechelt.

Now, with the fifth anniversary of her disappearance approaching, the RCMP are revisiting the case and family members are saying foul play is finally being taken seriously as a possible explanation.

"As hard as it is to face that criminal aspect … we have a sick feeling in our guts that may be where the answer lies," said Jennifer Tipper of her mother's case.

Ms. Tipper said in the weeks after her mother vanished, on Grey Cup Sunday, Nov. 27, 2005, a frantic effort was made to find her.

Some 40 search and rescue experts, community residents, an RCMP helicopter, five police dogs and a psychic helped look for Ms. Lake.

"Foul play wasn't really an angle the police pursued then," said Ms. Tipper. "It was all about an elderly woman taking a walk and vanishing in the forest."

But as the years passed, family members became increasingly convinced she hadn't simply become lost in the woods.

"Nobody ever found a shred of evidence. Not a hat. Not a glove. Not a walking stick. … It's just too clean," said Ms. Tipper.

She said her mother was last seen by her brother, Adam Lake, at her home that Sunday.

"My brother saw her at 2 and then he left the house and said good-bye. … She was seen walking along the winding road near the entrance to Porpoise Bay Provincial Park at about 3 or 3:30. That's about two miles away and it's not a place she would normally go walking," said Ms. Tipper. "That was the last she was ever seen."

Ms. Tipper said her mother, who for a period was art critic for The Vancouver Sun and who was editor of Alive magazine from 1991 to 2002, was physically fit and mentally sharp and likely didn't wander into the bush and get lost.

A family theory is that Ms. Lake may have been struck by a car, then her body hidden.

Not knowing has been a torment.

"It's been pretty horrible. It's just indescribable. It's scary. … You think of your mom but you have that haunting realization you don't know how she ended her life," she said.

Greg Middleton, a retired journalist who was a top crime reporter for The Province for many years, said his aunt's disappearance has long troubled him.

"This is tearing our family apart and it will continue to do that until we know what happened," he said.

"I covered enough cases in my career to know that bodies almost always turn up if it's a case of someone dying by accident or suicide," said Mr. Middleton. "The total lack of anything in this case points to foul play. … Obviously, there's got to be somebody who knows something."

He said at the time of his aunt's disappearance that a police investigator told him they had suspicions of foul play, but the lead wasn't fully investigated.

"There were some concerns raised that she was having some difficulty with someone, of a personal nature. At least one of the RCMP officers I talked to said it raised concerns, but because the focus was on the search, it wasn't really pursued," he said.

But Constable Cathleen Falebrinza of the Sunshine Coast RCMP's Serious Crime Unit said police were always alert to the possibility Ms. Lake had been the victim of a crime.

"The RCMP have always considered foul play in regards to the disappearance of Rhody Lake. Until we can eliminate the possibility of foul play, it is a constant consideration in our minds and this investigation," she said in an e-mail.

Constable Falebrinza said the RCMP will soon be releasing a Crime Stoppers video on the case, "with the hope to bring the disappearance of Rhody Lake into the forefront of people's minds … and [to]trigger some memories or information people may have that they have not shared."