Family of missing Nuxalk and Heiltsuk man offers $10,000 reward for information

The family of a missing Bella Coola, B.C., man is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to his current whereabouts.

Carl Schooner Jr., 30, was reported missing on Dec. 6, 2022. He left Bella Coola at the end of November for a short family visit in Williams Lake, about 453 kilometres to the east.

He had been staying with a friend and was supposed to return home on Dec. 2, according to his family, which his pleading for his safe return. He was last seen in Williams Lake on Dec. 4.

“Carl is a hard-working young man who loved helping others and being with his family,” Carl Schooner Sr., his father, said in a Thursday news release.

“He’s a good-hearted, kind person, and it’s totally out of character for him to be out of contact with us for this long.”

Schooner’s family held a joint press conference with the Nuxalk Nation, Williams Lake First Nation and Williams Lake RCMP in Williams Lake on Thursday.

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Schooner is of Heiltsuk and Nuxalk ancestry. His family, friends and a group of volunteers have been scouring Williams Lake for weeks to find him.

“We don’t know anything. We’re just looking anywhere that we can,” his father told Global News.

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“It’s been very trying times for Indigenous people,” added Williams Lake First Nation Kúkpi7 Willie Sellars.

“We need to embrace that the RCMP are here to help us today, we need to embrace the history and legacy of that entity in our communities and the trauma that was created, because if we don’t do that we won’t be able to move forward.”

Nuxalk Chief Samuel Schooner said the impact of Schooner’s disappearance is felt far and wide. He echoed Sellars’ message of collaboration and unity.

“We all have someone that’s missing in our communities and the only way we’re going to stop this is if we work together,” he said. “We need to work together with the RCMP, we need to work together in our communities, we need to work together with other leadership.

“That’s the way we’re going to find Carl Jr.”

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Schooner is described as six feet one inch tall with a medium build, weighing 161 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes, and a tattoo of his daughter’s name, Rosa, on his right forearm.

He has no cellphone or vehicle, his family said.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Williams Lake RCMP at 250-392-6211 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. The Nuxalk Nation is also accepting tips and information at 250-799-5613.