Friends of a New Brunswick writer missing since Thanksgiving Day are still holding out hope that he can be found safe.
Richard Vaughan has not been seen since the evening of Oct. 12, near his home in Fredericton.
The last person to see Vaughan was longtime friend Nathaniel Moore, in whose basement Vaughan has been living since March.
Moore said he and Vaughan often spent time around his backyard fire pit.
“I hope that he is found,” Moore said. “I hope that he is found and knows that there’s people that can take care of him and heal him and make him feel better. It has been nine days. We don’t know if he has money.”
Vaughan, 55, is an artist and author of several books, poems and plays. His works have been featured in numerous publications and galleries, often written under the name RM Vaughan.
He returned to his home province in 2019 to become writer in residence at the University of New Brunswick.
Meredith J. Batt, the vice-president of the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick (QHINB), said that’s how they got to know Vaughan over the past year. Batt said they collaborated on a number of projects through QHINB.
Vaughan is a mentor to the LGBTQ2 community, Batt said.
“It’s been awful,” Batt said of Vaughan’s disappearance. “You hope that your loved ones, your friends, people that you see as a mentor never, ever go missing, that this never happens. And we just want Richard home safe and sound.”
On Monday, Fredericton police appealed to the public to turn over any video footage of Vaughan’s neighbourhood. They asked for security camera and doorbell video — anything that could help them retrace his steps from the night he disappeared.
“We are still actively investigating RM Vaughan’s disappearance, and are asking the public to share any information with us,” Fredericton Police Force public information officer Alycia Bartlett said in an email to Global News. “Even the smallest tip might lead us in the right direction.”
Moore said he considers Vaughan to be an older brother or uncle to him. He said Vaughan helped him come to terms with abuse suffered at the hands of a friend when he was a teenager.
“I won’t say what he said, but he told me in four words something that just made it so simple and made me feel like it wasn’t about me, what happened to me,” Moore said. “What he said was so important. It really helped me.”
Police say foul play is not suspected in Vaughan’s disappearance.
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