Chang says his request to be released, while his daughter is missing, has been denied
Kerry Chang admits he hasn’t been a model father. He and his wife have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for years. But he’s always loved Makayla.
“My daughter is everything in my world,” says Chang, on the phone from inside Wilkinson Road Jail. “Her absence has left a big hole in us and we’re just hoping we can find her and bring her back home.”
Chang has a lengthy criminal record. He was last sentenced at the Nanaimo Courthouse March 16th for having a loaded gun in his car. RCMP say Makayla was last seen four days later.
“Her being missing right now is the only thing that’s on my mind,” says Chang. “It’s just destroying me right now, being incarcerated. I feel helpless as I’ve ever been in my life.”
As for his thoughts about Steven Bacon, the 57 year-old his daughter spent time with.
“I didn’t know him. I met him on the one occasion where I told him stay away from my daughter,” says Chang. “He came across as a creep. I told my daughter to stay away from him but unfortunately i think he persuaded her otherwise. It’s been three weeks that she’s been missing and we’re no closer to knowing her whereabouts.”
Chang says when his mother Dollie went to report Makayla missing she ran into Bacon at the police station.
The 57-year old was also there to tell RCMP that the teen had vanished.
“My question is why wouldn’t he check with my mom first before he would ever report her missing? But while they were arguing in the police station in the office I guess a police officer came out and took my mom into the back and Steven Bacon scooted out the doors and that was the last they had seen of him until they found him in Thunder Bay, Ontario.”
Thunder Bay is where Bacon was convicted of a sex assault in 1992 before spending 4 years in prison. Nanaimo RCMP will not confirm where Bacon is now.
Chang says he’s tried to get out of jail, on compassionate grounds, to support his family while Makayla is missing, without success. He has a message for his daughter.
“Where ever she may be fight, kick, scratch, bite do whatever you have to do to get away from whoever is holding you back because I know somebody’s holding her back.”
A plea from a father anxious to see his daughter again. Chang is set to be released May 14th.
Kendall Hanson
