The Boyle sisters sit together and reminisce about the good times they spent as young girls with their beloved brother Jay.
“Your typical big brother. Play, fight, he’d pick on me,” said Siobhan Boyle while laughing. “We had a love-hate relationship.”
In March 1995, 17-year-old Jay and five friends went missing after a night of partying. Video surveillance showed three of them breaking into the East Shore Marina on Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering. It’s believed they stole two boats and went into the cold waters of Lake Ontario, never to be seen again. From then on, they were dubbed the “Lost Boys.”
“So I was 12, he went missing a month before my 13th birthday,” said Siobhan. “It’s been hard, it’s almost like you’ve been living in a fog.”
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Amanda Boyle said she remembers her brother as a “funny guy.”
“Jay was very protective of his sisters, his family. But he was such a loving guy. He would do anything for you,” she said.
The sisters found there was a lack of support for their family as they grew up with a loved one missing. After a close family friend also went missing this year, Siobhan said she decided it was time Canada did something more. She started a petition to declare a National Missing Persons Day.
“A day to put all their names and faces back in the spotlight, just that one day even,” said Siobhan.
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There is an International Missing Children’s Day, but the Boyles want a day for people of all ages.
The latest RCMP numbers suggest approximately 71,000 people went missing in 2015 alone. That same year Ottawa passed Lindsey’s Law in honour of a missing British Columbia girl, a law that created a national DNA-based missing persons index.
The Boyles hope on Missing Persons Day additional resources would be available to support families and ensure they submit DNA like New York City does every year.
“I didn’t even know that my brother’s DNA wasn’t even submitted. It wasn’t even asked for,” said Amanda.
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“You know if there’s someone found, there’s so many missing people and unidentified remains they need to be able to run it through the database.”
“There’s always unidentified remains sitting in the Coroner’s offices and for all you know it could be your missing loved one, but if you haven’t submitted their DNA you’ll never know,” added Siobhan.
The Boyles’ petition will be presented to the Parliament of Canada in the fall by Scarborough Southwest MP Bill Blair.