Teen with a GoPro helps solve decades-old Mill Bay missing persons case

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Watch A teen's incredible discovery in B.C.'s Interior has solved a decades-old missing persons case on Vancouver Island. Janet Farris, from Mill Bay, went missing 27 years ago on her way to Alberta. April Lawrence reports.

 

Mill Bay resident Janet Farris was driving to a wedding in Alberta in 1992 when she vanished. Her granddaughter, Erin Farris-Hartley, was 12-years-old.

“I didn’t want to admit that I was sad in front of my parents because that would maybe be admitting I had lost hope,” she said.

Farris was driving the Trans-Canada highway by herself and was last seen getting gas in Salmon Arm. But now thanks to 13-year-old Max Werenka we know Farris didn’t make it much farther.

“So they went out searching in the lake with my 13-year-old son and lo and behold they found a vehicle,” Max’s mother Nancy Werenka told CBC News.

The Werenka’s own Griffin Lake Cabins near Revelstoke. Max was out with some guests when they spotted a submerged car. The family called RCMP but when they couldn’t find it, Max jumped in with his GoPro and took video of the upside-down car to show them. Then the divers were called in.

“With the help of a local tow company able to hook onto the vehicle and drag out the vehicle and once we got the vehicle out, a body was located inside, a female,” said Revelstoke RCMP Cpl. Thomas Blakney.

It was Janet Farris.

“It’s been really emotional the last week and a half of feeling happy with the news and then also feeling really really sad,” said Farris-Hartley.

“We can grieve properly now and lay her memory to rest the way I think she would want us too.”

And for that the family is thankful for the brave and persistent 13-year-old with a GoPro.

“It’s really important to me for him to know that we thank him from the bottom of our hearts,” she said.

Janet’s remains will now be placed alongside her husband’s.

 

April LawrenceApril Lawrence

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