Michael Smith, 17 missing since December 30, 1967. Last seen at his North Vancouver home. Canada’s Missing website (National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains) RCMP case #2014003272
Canada’s Missing:
I came across this listing and a grainy photo of North Vancouver’s 17-year-old Michael Smith when I was researching missing person cases on Canada’s Missing website for Cold Case BC. There wasn’t much else in the post. Just that Mike was 5 foot 10 and weighed 161 pounds, and a description of the clothes that he was wearing when he was last seen. It also mentioned that he was despondent over a friend’s death. I put up a post on my Facebook page Cold Case BC, and as I’d hoped, several people got in touch with more information and photos.
Mike lived at 639 East 3rd Street in North Vancouver. He went to Ridgeway Elementary, Sutherland and onto North Vancouver Senior Secondary.
The 1960s:
Art McKay is Mike’s nephew, although he is one year older—his mother being the oldest of the nine siblings—and Mike the youngest. “I don’t know whether he just walked away or if somebody picked him up. I really don’t know and nobody I know has heard a word since,” says Art. “I don’t think there was any kind of a major police investigation given the times. In the late ‘60s, kids just took off all the time.”
Bob Tribe:
Art says that he and Mike were close. There was a group of about 25 kids who hung out at Third Beach in Stanley Park. Mike was there on June 5, the day that his close friend and neighbour, Bob Tribe dove off Siwash Rock into shallow water, and died.
Mike was clearly upset about Bob’s death, but if the date on Canada’s Missing website is correct, Bob died 18 months before Mike went missing. His leaving home likely had more to do with being caught smoking weed, which especially bothered his older brother Butch who was in the Airforce and had no tolerance for drugs and long hair.
James Howe lived across the lane from Mike and says he was told that Mike was living in Toronto but acknowledges that he has no proof of that. “Mike was very quiet and shy—he didn’t say a lot. He had a lot of close friends. His girlfriend lived across the street and he didn’t even tell her, he just disappeared.”
What I did find out was that even though 55 years had passed, he was still very much missed by his large family, who still search for answers.
Lucy Johnson:
The second part of the episode is about Lucy Johnson, a 25-year-old mother of two. Lucy went missing from her Surrey, BC home in 1961. For 52 years she was listed as “missing, foul play suspected” by the RCMP. And then in 2013, Lucy’s story got an ending.
Show Notes:
Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours and Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro: Mark Dunn
Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media
Podcast promo: Blood, Sweat and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance
Source: Cold Case BC: The Stories Behind the Province’s Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Persons Cases
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.