Draper Lee Jim has been missing for 4,014 days.
Tuesday will mark the 11-year anniversary of the disappearance of the young Saskatchewan man.
Now, his family members say they believe in their heart of hearts that Jim, 27, is gone but that they’ll never give up hope that his remains will be found.
On Monday, Lillian Thomas tearfully told Global News she is on a crusade for closure after her nephew disappeared without a trace.
“My nephew used to call me every week, he used to catch the Greyhound bus to see me,” she said.
“I have not heard from him or heard his voice since the day the day he went missing 11 years ago.”
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Feb. 21, 2006 was the last time anyone saw Jim alive.
According to Thomas, surveillance footage captured some of Jim’s last known movements after he entered a corner store in Cochin, Sask., where he bought a coffee, used the washroom and then vanished after walking out the front door.
“I would just love to hear his voice but I have known for quite some time that I’m not going to – that somebody did do something to him because this is not like him,” she sobbed. “I know he would have called me by now.”
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After leaving his job at the Maple Leaf Foods plant in North Battleford, Sask., that fateful day, Jim was last spotted on Highway 4 approximately 21 kilometres north of the city.
His destination – according to Thomas – was to to seek help from a medicine man after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“I always prayed with him about that and he led a clean and sober life prior to him going missing.”
Thomas is now pleading for anyone with information about Jim’s disappearance to come forward and file a report with police.
“We would like so much for the RCMP to locate him – whether he’s alive or not – we want to know, we want to bring him home,” she said.
The family says if something truly horrible did transpire, they are not interested in placing blame.
They just want to find Jim’s remains and lay him to rest beside his mother, who passed away in 2014 without knowing what happened to her son.
“I just want him to come home, that’s all I really, really want,” Thomas said.
“I miss him so much.”
