Police launch blitz for tips in the disappearance of Shelley Desrochers

Two years to the day she was last seen, London Police Service are continuing their search for Shelley Desrochers by canvassing city streets.

The 43-year-old woman wasn’t reported missing until about three weeks after the last time she was confirmed being seen by a police officer on Jan. 2, 2016.

Her disappearance has launched an investigation that’s been “very active,” ever since a missing persons file was created, said case manager Det. Sgt. Alex Krygsman.

“We have a few investigative theories that we’ve developed, over the course of time,” he explained.

Police have received 182 tips about her disappearance to date, and he remains hopeful that he’ll be able to find the woman he met, more than a decade before he was tasked with leading the investigation into her disappearance.

“Our encounter is fresh in mind,” Krygsman said of the meeting, which happened in the early 2000s while he was a patrol officer working on a different investigation.

Investigators spent the afternoon where Desrochers was known to spend time, in the area of Hamilton Road and Old East Village, in hopes of gathering new scraps of information that may help solve the case.

“Any information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is welcomed. Information that may seem insignificant to a member of the community may well be extremely important to use in our investigation,” explained Krygsman.

Meanwhile, not a day goes by that Laura Desrochers doesn’t think of her missing sister.

“I’m counting on the London city police to solve the case,” she told 980 CFPL. “We’re not going to let go.”

Police described Desrocher as a white woman, about five-foot-two, and 130 pounds with hazel eyes. They say she had long brown hair when she disappeared, and has a distinctive “pigeon-toed” walk, and a number of visible tattoos including a rose, a heart, and a blue bird.

“She was really caring, really friendly, very approachable,” said her sister.

“She just ended up falling into a hole in her life, and she had lots of support around her. I think she just was struggling with trying to take that step to change her life.”

Police say Desrochers was known to struggle with addiction, and lived what they call a “high-risk lifestyle,” a terminology that frustrates more than one local organization that offers support and services to women.

“I think it’s a really offensive term,” explained London Abused Women’s Centre executive director, Megan Walker.

“It implies that the women themselves are at fault for what may happen to them because they have pursued or consented to be in a high-risk lifestyle.”

But Walker is pleased to see that London police are taking the disappearance seriously.

“I feel there is a shift happening now,” she explained. But police have to do more, she says.

“If a woman goes missing from the sex trade, it should be given the highest priority, because time is not often on our side in those cases and we need to take firm and decisive action.”