Without knowing where their son is, Dylan Ehler’s parents did what they know he would love to do — launch little dissolvable boats marked with messages of hope and love, one year after he disappeared.
“It’s tough. It’s sad to put a boat out in memory of a child,” Jason Ehler said. “It was a special day for him, but a sad day.”
His son, three-year-old Dylan Ehler, was last seen by the toddler’s grandmother Dorothy Parsons in her backyard in Truro. For the first time, she spoke with CTV News.
“I went to tie the dog on her lead and I turn around and Dylan is just gone. Gone. I have no explanation,” Dorothy Parsons said, adding she believes it all happened within 18 to 20 seconds.
“I don’t think he went near the water. I think somebody has him,” she said. “To not be able to have him, hear him, laughing playing … I’m just destroyed.”
Truro Police don’t suspect foul play, but 365 days after his disappearance, the questions are the same.
An extensive search was launched for the missing toddler, but only his boots were found.
“There are days when I feel the most logical explanation (is) that he went in the river,” said Ashley Brown, Dylan’s mother. “And then there are days when I think all the branches and trees and debris in the water that should’ve stopped him. They stopped his boots. Why didn’t they stop him?”
Jason Ehler has been critical of Truro Police’s investigation and said he’s made a complaint.
“They’ve put me in the dark,” Ehler said.
