Edmonton police are releasing new details about a woman who’s been missing in Edmonton since the summer of 2022, hoping the public can help provide some answers to her family.
Gaylene Rose hasn’t seen her daughter Maggie Oerlemans in years.
“I just have this hole in my heart,” she said.
Oerlemans disappeared in July 2022. The 43-year-old mother of four is small in stature, just five feet tall — but her family said she makes up for it with a big personality.
“She was loud, she laughed a lot. Her laugh was contagious,” said her daughter Cailtin Korobko.
Oerlemans used to meet her kids at Boston Pizza. The resemblance between her and her daughter is striking.
“I get told all the time that I look just like my mom,” Korobko said.
According to her mom and niece, Oerlemans was addicted to drugs and wasn’t in regular contact with her family.
“Maggie was a lost soul,” Rose explained.
Because of that, nine months passed before family realized nobody had heard from her. They all assumed she’d been in contact with someone else.
“When it comes to it being more than one year (of not hearing from Oerlemans), that’s really not good, there’s something going on,” Korobko said.
The delay in reporting her missing is challenging for investigators.
The last place police were able to track Oerlemans to is her north Edmonton apartment building, Astoria Greens.
But by the time they knew Oerlemans was missing, her unit had been cleared out due to unpaid rent and her possessions already disposed of.
Some records still existed though, including her phone history.
“One of the last things she did on her phone was she made a phone call to her boyfriend around 5 a.m., his name was Stephen Kashman — he was in custody at the time,” explained Const. Matthew Broadfoot with the Edmonton Police Service missing persons unit.
That phone was off and in the possession of police. The call length leads them to believe Oerlemans left Kashman a voicemail — what exactly it said has yet to be determined.
Investigators hoped to ask Kashman, but never got the chance — he died.
The EPS is moving to Plan B, believing Kashman might have told a friend about the message, or Oerlemans, in general.
“She might have told him something in that voicemail. Or he might have shared some information with a friend or acquaintance that we don’t necessarily have,” Broadfoot said.
“We are very interested in really anyone that’s had conversations with Stephen from essentially his release from custody (on) July 20, 2022 until he passed away.”
There’s a few other missing pieces of the puzzle police are working on, including determining why Oerlemans visited an acquaintance in the Capilano area of southeast Edmonton just days before she disappeared, and how she got there.
They also have questions about a missing vehicle police believe she had access to: a 2007 black Mazda 6S with Alberta plate CDP-1006.
Not having any closure has been difficult for Oerlemans’ loved ones.
“You wake up every day and that’s the first thought. What a way to wake up every day and go to sleep every night, not knowing where your child is,” her mom said through tears.
“I just feel like she is not here anymore.”
Her daughter, though, holds out hope: “If she is alive, I pray that God will guide her home.”
Korobko is having a baby and wants her mom to meet her grandchild.
“It would mean the world to me. I know she would be so happy,” she said.
Oerlemans’ niece, Jaylene Naugler, last saw her aunt in June 2022 at Oerlemans’ father’s place.
“I used to always watch documentaries about people going missing and disappearing — it’s mind boggling. But waking up and having it be my reality? It’s totally different,” Naugler said.
“At this point any answer is better than no answer. It’s been two years. Your mind just runs and runs, day and night.”
Oerlemans has brown hair, usually wears dark, fitted clothes and black sunglasses. Her ears are pierced all the way up and she has a dragon tattoo on her right shin.
Anyone with information about Oerlemans’ whereabouts is urged to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
The EPS can be contacted at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.
In Part 2 of this series, police speak about what people should do if a loved one goes missing.
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