CALGARY- After nearly four months, there is still no trace of a young Calgarian.
21-year-old Justin McKinnon-Blomme vanished in September after leaving a house party.
His mom Karleen Thibeault says the family wants answers and is now offering a reward.
“When he first went missing. I never guessed he would be missing. That he wouldn’t be around for Christmas. That I wouldn’t know when I would see him next,” Thibeault said.
After exhausting all efforts, McKinnon-Blomme’s family has decided to expand their search, putting posters up at gas stations, truck stops and shelters across Canada.
They’re now also offering a $10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts.
“It’s been four months. There’s been no tips, no leads and we’ve decided to take it upon ourselves to offer the reward in case somebody knows something,” Thibeault said.
Rewards can lead to information and increase awareness, but experts caution they also run the risk of wasting resources.
“It can generate a lot of false leads in a case and sometimes that can be difficult because every single tip that comes in to law enforcement they will investigate,” Amanda Pick from the Missing Children Society of Canada says.
McKinnon-Blomme had been at house party in the southeast on September 24th, before he went missing. He was assaulted at the party.
McKinnon Mloome was last seen by his friends around 10:30 p.m. that night at the intersection of Acadia Drive and Southland Drive S.E.
The car he was a passenger in stopped at a red light. He got out and began walking.
Police do not believe the assault is linked to his disappearance, however his mother says he was bullied the night he vanished.
“It’s really hard for a parent to know that he was bullied,” Thibeault said.
“As a mom, when you know your child went missing, feeling down on himself, or feeling low…then if he just got out of the car and just needed kind of a break.”
Right now, questions far outnumber answers but the family is finding strength in one another and the hope one day their son will return home.
A 20-year-old man was charged in connection with the assault.
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