It’s been 20 years since Ashleigh Pettman-Wilson disappeared without a trace.
The 18 year old had gone out with a friend, and never returned home in circumstances that remain unknown to this day. No crime scene, no remains and no witnesses offered any insight into what may have transpired on June 5, 2005, the last time she was known to be in Kelowna, the city she recently made home.
In turn, the investigation into her disappearance remains cold.
“This is one of those ones that it’s really difficult,” retired investigator Darren Feist said Wednesday morning at the Kelowna RCMP headquarters.
He’s been working on figuring out what happened to the teen for several months and has seen little advancement in that aim. He wasn’t left with much to start with. Pettman-Wilson wasn’t reported missing until weeks after her last sighting in Kelowna’s City Park, so any trace of her had long gone cold by the time a file into her disappearance was opened.
“There was some initial follow up with friends and acquaintances and family in regards to her going missing but it’s that typical missing persons file where you’re usually brought in after the fact so there’s no real crime scene,” he said.
It’s not an ideal scenario but may offer a more truthful view into the world of cold case investigations. Despite being the focus of countless movies and television programs, Feist said they are difficult to crack.
Even with advances in forensic technology, breakthroughs are rare, particularly when, in cases like the one at hand, there’s not even a crime scene. Until Feist, Kelowna didn’t even have someone dedicated to cases of this kind, and unsolved homicides just gathered dust over time.
Feist is hopeful he can make a difference but he needs those who knew the teen to come out from the shadows of history and offer some insight into what could have happened, offering closure to her long-suffering loved ones.
Until then, he’s doing what he can.
“There was some avenues of investigation that were left open over the years, but that’s been just following up with people who may have known her, trying to track them down,” he said Wednesday.
FULL ARTICLE: https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/549042/Teen-missing-from-Kelowna-for-20-years-plea-for-information-renewed
x
