Caitlyn Murray-Carr hasn’t been heard from or seen since Sept. 30, 2013 in Quesnel.
“They found her car but no keys, no phone, no nothing,” Carmen Carr, Caitlyn’s mother, told Global News.
“For some reason that night, really oddly enough, at about 11:43, 11:48 p.m., I texted her out of the blue I said, ‘no matter what we love you,'” said Carr.
Her mother said she had to beg police to get her 21-year-old daughter on the missing person list.
She doesn’t believe police investigators who state Caitlyn likely took her own life.
Carr said other people who have jumped into the Fraser River from the footbridge, where she was last seen walking towards after she parked her car, have washed up less than 10 days later.
“The more loud I got, and the more proactive I got, the worse they started picking on us,” Carr said of police reaction to demands to find her daughter any way they could.
Caitlyn worked as a care-aid at a group home in Quesnel before disappearing and is described as kind and thoughtful.
Carr doesn’t believe her daughter is on the farm south of Salmon Arm, where the remains of a missing Vernon teen were discovered last month.
Caitlyn had just left an abusive relationship two days prior to disappearing, according to her mom.
While Carr said her daughter’s boyfriend was charged with assault for an incident that lead to their break-up, the charge was dropped after Caitlyn was not found.
While watching the discovery of remains unfold in the north Okanagan, Carr said she feels the pain families are experiencing as they wait for word of their missing loved ones.
“My heart bleeds for them. There’s no greater pain.”
Carr said communities should be demanding better police resources to deal with, what she calls, an epidemic of missing persons in B.C.
“Whether you are black, brown, red or green, whether you’re a sex trade worker or like my daughter, just your average small town girl, it doesn’t matter: all lives matter and nobody, and I mean nobody deserves to be lost and the family doesn’t deserve to know their loved one’s missing.”
Caitlyn’s fate is still unknown as are dozens of people in B.C. whose faces are among those who have disappeared in the north Okanagan.
Caitlyn’s parents return to the Fraser River Footbridge in Quesnel every year on Sept. 30 to remember their daughter.
They haven’t given up hope and they ask the same of others who have missing loved ones.
“Don’t give up. Be the voice for your child. Don’t rest until something is resolved. We owe that to our children and the police owe it to our community.”