Friends and family of the late Holly Ellsworth-Clark – the subject of a high-profile missing person case in Hamilton – will remember the 27-year-old in a tribute this weekend.
Dave Clark returned to Hamilton on Wednesday afternoon and will attend a celebration of life for his daughter set for Saturday at Woodlands Park, not far from where Ellsworth-Clark was last seen at Sanford Avenue and Barton Street.
“We have a limited venue that’s sort of marked off, but there are places that people could be in the park,” Clark said.
“There’s going to be a livestream, so if people want to stay at home and not risk COVID, that would probably be better.”
The gathering is one of a couple across the country that will pay tribute to Ellsworth-Clark, whose remains were discovered Sept. 8 in Hamilton Harbour at Pier 11.
Hamilton police say the body had been in the water for a prolonged period of time, and forensics teams ruled the death was “not suspicious in nature.”
However, Clark says he’s not quite sure there was “no foul play” in the death of his daughter and says he’ll hold off accepting that claim until he sees the second autopsy from Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist.
“The two autopsies are completed and the results of the second will be back in five or six weeks,” Clark told Global News.
Clark wanted a second look due to “vague answers” about the body’s lower legs which were missing, according to the first report.
“There was some suggestion made to me that it could have been made by a boat strike, but that’s something that evidence should be able to determine instead of just a kind of vague guess, which was all of the information that I was getting,” Clark said.
The second autopsy is being overseen by the province’s head pathologist, Dr. Michael Pollanen, and comes amid Clark’s belief that there might be more to the story.
“There are a bunch of mysterious things that we don’t have reasons for about the circumstances of being found,” Clark said.
“Those could be explained in all kinds of ways. There are all kinds of sort of imaginative tracks.”
Ellsworth-Clark’s family say they are giving “careful assessment” to the possibility of hiring a dive team to explore waters off of Pier 11 but have not yet decided on whether it would be “productive.”
“It would be really easy to throw many thousands of dollars into that kind of project without getting any kind of real results,” said Clark.
Vigil at Woodlands Park
Friends, family and search volunteers are expected to make brief visits to Woodland Park from 2:p.m. until 7:p.m. on Saturday to pay respects to Ellsworth-Clark.
The event is expected to be live-streamed at the event page.
During that time, artists will paint over a mural at the park in honour of Ellsworth-Clark.
An event is also expected in Calgary on Oct. 3.
Clark says there are so many to acknowledge who came to the city from all around to help with searches for his daughter.
“I didn’t really know the extent of all her friendships. The kind, amazing outpouring of feeling heard in all kinds of stories,” Clark said.
“We have a lot of people to thank and I can’t really do it properly.”
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