A volunteer group is hoping to bring closure to a couple of local families.
Please Bring Me Home is looking for volunteers to help search for Luciano Trinaistich, who went missing in July 2007, and Chris Rivers, who's been missing since August 2017. The search is happening on Sunday, May 21.
“I’m just hoping for a good outcome and find closure for the family, it’s been so long,” said Natashia Pickering, Please Bring Me Home investigation team member.
Both of the cases have connections to the Murphy Road area. Over eight kilometres long, the road connects Highway 655 to Florence Street (Hallnor Road) north of the Ontario government complex, on the way to the Bell Creek Mine site.
Local volunteers have already been helping out.
For the last week, Pickering said people have been doing drone searches of the area.
“We’ve obtained over 1,150 pictures, so we’ve been going through the pictures all this week trying to pinpoint anything we can see on the ground,” she said.
While there are other unsolved missing people cases in Timmins, Pickering said both of these families reached out to Please Bring Me Home to look into their cases.
Trinaistich was 79 years old when he went missing. He was last seen on July 24, 2007, according to Timmins Police information on missing people cases.
He was last seen leaving his residence to go blueberry picking in the Highway 655 area and his vehicle was located on July 25, 2007, on Murphy Road.
“All of the blueberry baskets were still in his vehicle when the car was found, it didn’t look like he went berry picking. And he usually leaves his keys on the back tire and makes sure that the windows are up, the windows were down, the car was unlocked, keys were in the vehicle and it just looks like he just vanished,” said Pickering.
Rivers was 44 when he was last seen in Timmins on Aug. 29, 2017. His vehicle was found abandoned in a wooded area of Murphy Road on Sept. 6, 2017.
A police ground search of the area turned up no signs of him and the search was suspended. Police later expanded the focus area for another ground search at the end of September 2017.
Timmins Police and OPP have been notified about the civilian searches this weekend.
Timmins Police corporate communications co-ordinator Marc Depatie said the service is interested in any information about Trinaistich or Rivers.
"Investigators were involved in these two separate investigations and continue to review information annually.
"The Please Bring Me Home organization has contacted the Timmins Police Service and spoken with investigators about their interest in locating the two missing people," said Depatie.
"Again, we are interested in learning any new information that may be learned from a renewed appeal to the public."
In Northern Ontario, the non-profit group has been involved in investigating the cases of Luke Joly in North Bay and Meagan Pilon in Sudbury.
RELATED: Another private search for Luke Joly-Durocher brings controversy
SEE: Volunteers continue search for Meagan Pilon
This weekend's searches are the furthest north in Ontario that the group has worked.
Pickering hopes to have 23-27 volunteers for the search.
People interested in participating should email [email protected] or [email protected]. They'll provide potential volunteers with what they need to know and bring to the search.
