Calgary police have announced they are “refocusing” their efforts to locate an 11-year-old boy who has been missing since July 16 and has been the subject of a massive ground search by police, the Calgary Fire Department, Alberta Sheriffs, search and rescue workers and members of the community.
“Given the amount of time that has passed and the information available to investigators,” Calgary police Chief Katie McLellan announced Monday that police will be reducing the resources committed to the “physical” search for the boy, known only to searchers and the community as Parker.
“Physical search efforts in his last known whereabouts and in Nose Hill Park, including nearby waterways, have been completed,” said McLellan.
“However, we are not giving up,” she added, insisting that the search “remains ongoing” and that investigators will continue to assess new information and leads.
Parker, who is neurodivergent and non-verbal, was last seen in person at his dayhome in the 0 to 100 block of Connaught Drive near Northmount Drive Northwest sometime between 11:08 a.m. and 11:41 a.m. on July 16.
He was then captured on video from a home security camera in the 5000 to 6000 block of Travis Crescent N.E. at around 12:52 p.m. the same day.
Two days later, Calgary police received special permission from the province to issue an Amber Alert, even though they maintain there’s no evidence he was abducted.
Police said over 12 days, searchers had walked more than 8,600 kilometres —roughly the distance from Calgary to Rome, Italy — and dedicated more than 5,500 hours to the operation and searched hundreds of homes and businesses.
Get breaking National news
They have also investigated more than 600 tips and reviewed more than 100,000 individual CCTV clips from over 650 individual cameras, residential security cameras and dashcams.
On July 24, after more than a week of searching, Calgary police moved its command post from Thorncliffe School, where it had been since the search began, to Nose Hill, about a kilometre to the west.
Police shut down public access to a parking lot and pathway entrance to aid in search efforts, but on Sunday afternoon the area was reopened and the command post was relocated again to the nearby Calgary Police Service District 3 office.
“Our approach is changing, but our resolve to find answers for Parker and his family is not,” McLellan said.
“We will continue to follow up on tips, re-examine evidence and pursue any new leads that emerge. If new information identifies an area requiring additional search activity, we are prepared and ready to respond. Amongst other things, we currently have hundreds of hours of videos to review.”
“Parker’s family has shown immense courage and strength while facing circumstances that no family should ever have to endure,” McLellan said, adding, “my thoughts remain with them.”
Calgary police also expressed their “sincere gratitude” to the thousands of community members, volunteers, numerous partner agencies and members of the media who assisted in the search effort.
“The level of compassion in this community that has been shown over the last 12 days has been remarkable,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Scott Guterson.
“I walked down to the area where he was last seen just yesterday and I saw little bags of goldfish taped to a bridge. I saw dozens of posters. I saw little cards in the weeds that urged Parker with pictures and with signs that we would hope he would understand. These are not things that we did. These are things that the community decided to do.”
“I can’t speak to how happy I am with the community response and how impressed I am by the amount of heart the Calgarians have put into this investigation and trying to find Parker to bring him home. Unfortunately, we still have work to do,” Guterson added.
Police continue to ask anyone who has information that may assist them in locating Parker to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 IPS), online at Calgary Crime Stoppers or by downloading the Crime Stoppers app (P3 Tips) from the app store.
Comments
Comments closed.
Due to the sensitive and/or legal subject matter of some of the content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the ability to disable comments from time to time.
Please see our Commenting Policy for more.