For 11 years, Rob Joly has been trying to answer two questions: Where is his son Luke and what happened to him?
Despite the passage of time, Joly said he's never considered giving up the search.
“We’re not going away and not giving up on this,” said Joly.
Luke Joly-Durocher, from Témiscaming, Que., was 20 years old when he vanished on the night of March 4, 2011. He was in North Bay to visit friends and was staying at a Sherbrooke Street apartment while in the city.
Luke and his friends were going to a downtown bar where he was refused entry. He then went to a second bar on Delaware Street where he was last seen alive.
“Something serious happened to my son and we’re out to find any clues or talk to anyone who has information,” said Joly.
At the time of the initial investigation, police seized Luke's dark navy American Eagle jacket and his prescription glasses from the apartment, along with his cellphone.
On March 15, 2011, Luke’s bank card was found by a pedestrian walking along Sherbrooke Street.
Joly said he met with private investigator Ellen White, who runs the ‘Whereabouts Unknown’ podcast along with a team of volunteer private investigators, retired police detectives, researchers, cyber security and digital media specialists.
White has agreed to help with the search.
“It is never too late to find out what happened to a missing person,” she said.
Since White started digging into the case, credible tips have flooded her line, which led her and Joly back to the unit where Luke stayed the night he disappeared.
“That building we believe based on information from several tipsters factored into his disappearance,” said White.
“So of course we wanted to get in there and have a look.”
On Aug. 25, the two went inside the apartment and the room where Luke stayed before he disappeared.
“It was kind of an eerie feeling and a lot of memories come back of the description of the apartment,” said Joly.
White said three items belonging to Luke could be the key to unraveling his disappearance: a red and white Air Canada bag with Rob’s name written in it in black marker, a pair of worn New Balance shoes with green trim, and his purple belt.
“Our tipsters have told us that the information specifically about that belt,” said White.
“That the belt they saw was circulating in the community as much as a week after Luke disappeared.”
Anyone with information is asked to call North Bay police, Crime Stoppers or Pulse Private Investigations.
“It would mean the world for us if the people have enough courage to give us the information we’re looking for,” Joly said.
North Bay police, with the assistance of the OPP and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Service, are offering a reward up to $50,000 to anyone who comes forward with information concerning the person(s) responsible for Luke’s disappearance.
