Police searching for Whitchurch-Stouffville man who vanished from family home

The family of a 61-year-old Whitchurch-Stouffville man is desperately seeking answers after his sudden disappearance.

Posters declaring Ponrasa Nagarajah missing were taped to hydro poles, mailboxes and stop signs throughout his family’s neighbourhood near Tenth Line and Main Street.

Nagarajah disappeared from the family home Tuesday, seemingly without a trace.

“We don’t know what to do,” said Hamsa Ponrasa, Nagarajah’s daughter, while wiping tears from her eyes in the family living room.

“We have been searching and sometimes it feels like we’re just aimlessly walking because there’s no clue.”

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Nagarajah has no history of mental health issues, but he told his wife that day he wasn’t feeling well. The family said he wasn’t acting like himself and might have been worried that previous health problems were resurfacing.

His wife was the last person to see him. He was sitting down to eat something as she went to take a nap.

“The front door was locked. He opened the back door and he went through the gates,” said Ponrasa.

She said she received a call from her mother that day after she awoke from her nap and couldn’t find Nagarajah.

“He didn’t call anyone, he didn’t wake up my mom and we haven’t seen him since then.”

Nagarajah often goes for long walks, but the family said he hadn’t over the last week due to leg pains.

He’s normally accompanied on those walks by his dogs. But this time he mysteriously left them and his wallet behind, adding to family and police concerns for his safety.

York Regional Police said they conducted an extensive ground search in a one-kilometre radius around Nagarajah’s family home, focusing on high-hazard areas like lakes, dams and ditches, without .

“(If) people don’t have phones with them, if they don’t have any personal effects with them, they can sometimes just vanish,” said Const. Andy Pattenden.

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He said officers also checked local hospitals for Nagarajah to no avail.

Investigators said if there’s enough evidence to warrant it, they’ll launch another, wider search.

Nagarjah is described as standing 5’4” and having a slim build. He has black hair, brown eyes and a grey goatee. He was last seen wearing a brown golf shirt, grey track pants and brown sandals.

Anyone with information is asked to call York Regional Police at 1-866-876-5423 ext. 7541.