The ex-wife thinks they're dead. So do the kids. And so does the cop who investigated the bizarre disappearance of Nick and Lisa Masee, a retired banker and his stylish wife who vanished without a trace seven years ago en route to a business dinner.
Now the man's children, Nick Masee Jr. and Tanya Ravenzwaaij-Masee, want a B.C. Supreme Court judge to make it legal. They say they haven't heard a shred of news from their father and stepmother since Aug. 11, 1994, and they've given up hope the couple are alive. They say they want death certificates issued so they can grieve and get on with their lives.
"Almost seven years have elapsed since my father's disappearance," Mr. Masee Jr., 39, swore in an affidavit filed last month in B.C. Supreme Court. "I am convinced that there is no explanation other than that my father is dead."
For years, Mr. Masee Jr., who now lives in Tokyo, and Ms. Ravenzwaaij-Masee, who lives in the Netherlands where her father was born, held some hope the couple might be alive.
Mr. Masee Jr. said his father, who was 55 when he disappeared, and his stepmother, 39 years old at the time, led low-key, almost secluded lives and had no enemies.
Now, Mr. Masee Jr. said he believes the couple were murdered, most likely by a professional who deftly disposed of the bodies. He said the new business venture his father had begun prior to his disappearance may have played a role. Mr. Masee Sr. was director of a company developing engine parts to cut smoke emissions in cars.
On Aug. 10, 1994, Mrs. Masee, a hairdresser, told a co-worker that she and her husband were meeting that night with a potential investor. But the couple never showed up for their 8:30 p.m. reservation.
The next day, Mrs. Masee phoned her salon and told a colleague she had been called away to a court case. She also called her husband's office to say he would be gone for a few days. Neither has been seen or heard from since.
Relatives who arrived at the Masees' two-storey North Vancouver home several days after they disappeared found the front door unlocked and Spider, the 17-year-old Persian cat, unfed. Mr. Masse Jr. said his father cherished Spider and would never have left him without food. "He wouldn't have done that," the son said in a telephone interview last week from Las Vegas, where he was on a business trip. "He loved that cat."
Not everyone thinks the Masees were victims.
Ozzie Kaban, the private investigator hired by Mr. Masee Jr., believes the couple are alive and likely living in a foreign country. He said he talked to witnesses who said the two were making plans to leave town in the days before they disappeared. Mr. Kaban, who has since had a falling out with Mr. Masee Jr., would not identify the witnesses.
"There's a chance he may be dead, who knows," Mr. Kaban said last week. "But at this point, my gut feeling tells me he's alive."
Mr. Masee Jr. said his father lacked the bravado and ruthlessness needed to stage a phony death. He was strait-laced, conservative and took few risks.
For 37 years, Mr. Masee Sr. worked as a senior banker with the Bank of Montreal. He retired in 1994 but had little to show after almost four decades with the bank. The Masees owed more than $500,000, in loans, a house mortgage and credit-card debts, Mr. Kaban said.
Associates interviewed after his disappearance said Mr. Masee Sr. was in awe of high-rolling and often controversial promoters that peopled Vancouver's financial scene. Many were his clients at the bank and he often invested in their deals.
One of his most controversial associates was another Dutch-born businessman, Fred Hofman, who bilked tens of millions of dollars from Vancouver's Dutch community before disappearing in April, 1991. Mr. Kaban said Mr. Hofman has been traced to Belize. He added that Mr. Hofman and Mr. Masse Sr. were close.
Mr. Masee Jr. disagreed. He said his father was among many who lost money to Mr. Hofman. He grew angry when confronted with Mr. Kaban's suggestion that the two might have disappeared together.
"If Mr. Kaban has seen my father in Belize, I wish he'd give me his address so I can find him."
Meanwhile, the former RCMP officer who investigated the Masees' disappearance says he found no evidence to suggest the couple fled. John Chersak said he thinks the couple were slain.
"I think they're dead," Mr. Chersak said. "People don't just vanish."