Whitby man missing since Monday allegedly disappeared for hours a day before

Watch the video above: Disappearance of Whitby man providing more questions than answers. Mark Carcasole reports. 

TORONTO – Police still don’t know where Jeffrey Boucher went or why he didn’t come home Monday after it’s believed he went on his routine morning run.

Police launched a search within a 15 kilometre radius of the man’s home in Whitby on Monday bringing in extra officers, auxiliary members, a helicopter and K9 teams.

“He has not yet been located and to date we don’t have any conclusive evidence as to his whereabouts,” Durham Regional Police Staff Sgt. Nancy Van Rooy said. “He could be out there and injured, he may have walked away for his own reasons; there are a number of possibilities.”

Van Rooy admitted that it is “within the realm of possibility” that Boucher disappeared on purpose but doesn’t know what might have triggered the decision.

She added that there has been no electronic footprint left in the wake of his disappearance. His credit, debit and OHIP cards have not been used.

He also allegedly went missing for several hours the day before.

Jeffrey Boucher’s daughter, Bettina, tweeted on Sunday about her father not returning home after a run. The tweet has since been deleted.

“My dad went running 3 hours ago and he isnt home yet. Anyone seen a 50 year old man lying on a side walk.”

“Yeah, that was a false alarm,” she said, adding she deleted the tweet because it wasn’t “relevant.”

He had gone out for a run late Sunday night after they had arrived home from their cottage, Bettina said.

“He usually comes home at 10 but it was so nice out he just stayed out until 11,” she said.

She added that it’s not unusual for her father to go out running twice in under 12 hours. She thought he was “probably trying to catch up” because he didn’t go running while they were away for the weekend.

There was a report from a Toronto radio station Wednesday that an investigation surrounding Boucher had been launched last week after a large quantity of money had been found in his desk.

Sgt. Van Rooy refused to confirm the report and instead suggested it was “rumour.”

“That is not something we are concerned with, it’s not a criminal investigation and we are not confirming that that is in fact true; those are rumours,” she said. “There has not been any police investigation surrounding any money that has been found.”

Search efforts were ramped up with extra volunteers Wednesday but police have still not been able to locate the 52-year-old.

Sgt. Van Rooy said police have searched “the majority” of the area as of Wednesday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/DRPS/status/423437589735948288

His family describes him as an avid runner who may have been injured during his run.

He’s believed to be wearing a dark blue and black Mountain Co-op running outfit and a pair of running shoes.

Several volunteers were spotted helping with the search efforts Wednesday morning, some of whom are athletes themselves.

“As we are runners, we don’t dress properly when we run,” said Ian Baron. “We have light clothing because we build a lot of heat in our body. But when something does happen, if he collapses and faints, it’s going to be very hard to find him.”

Dave Robinet, who was a member of the volunteer search party, said often runners don’t even carry identification.

Boucher’s 17-year-old daughter says he’s been running every day for the last 20 years.

WATCH: Durham Regional Police are still holding out hope to find the missing Whitby man

Boucher is described as white, six feet tall, 180 pounds with grey and white short hair.

Although some citizen and volunteers have been helping out with the search, police issued a statement on Tuesday asking people not to go out on their own in ravines and green spaces as they could get injured on hazardous terrain consequently pulling resources away from the search.