Police may have found shoe of missing teacher Jeffrey Boucher

Watch the video above: After months of searching, police may have found Jeffrey Boucher’s shoe. Peter Kim reports. 

TORONTO – Durham Regional Police have found a shoe they believe was worn by Jeffrey Boucher, the teacher who disappeared in January.

A woman alerted police to a shoe she found near the Heydenshore Pavilion in Whitby on Tuesday. The pavilion is mere metres from a trail and the shores of Lake Ontario. Boucher was an experienced runner and police spent much of their search combing running trails and the water near Whitby.

An initial investigation has led police to conclude the shoe might belong to Boucher.  A small number of officers is searching the area for the missing teacher ahead of a large-scale search next week.

A helicopter is scheduled to search the area later Friday evening.

Watch: Jeffrey Boucher has been missing since January. Watch the Global News stories below about the search:

Police say this is the first piece of evidence they’ve received in their investigation.

The search for Boucher expanded several times. At first they focused on running trails near his Whitby home. They then expanded it to a 15 kilometre radius around the man’s home. When they came up empty-handed, they expanded the search radius again and combed the Whitby pier, to no avail.

Boucher was last seen on Sunday Jan. 12 but police believe he went for an early morning run the next day.

His family told Global News he was an avid runner and frequently went on two- to three-hour runs. In fact, his family thought he was missing for a brief period of time on Jan. 12 after an extended run. He came back at approximately 11 p.m. before disappearing the next morning.