Ronnie Jack, 26, Doreen Jack, 26, Russell 9 and Ryan 4 were last seen on August 2, 1989 in Prince George. They told their family they had jobs at a logging camp and they’d be gone for about 10 days. And then they vanished.
This story is from my new book Cold Case BC: The stories behind the Province’s most sensational murders and missing persons cases
On August 1, 1989, Ronnie Jack, 26, was at the First Litre Pub, a sketchy Prince George drinking hole about four blocks from his home. While there he got to talking to a man in his late thirties who offered Ronnie and his wife Doreen temporary jobs at a logging camp. Since they didn’t own a car, they’d leave with the man that night.
Job at a logging camp:
Ronnie called his mother Mabel and told her that they would be working in the Cluculz Lake area. He would be bucking logs and Doreen would work as a cook’s helper in the camp kitchen. The kids would go with them. Ronnie said they would be gone about ten days, back well before Russell started school that September.
As weeks went by with no word from the family, Mabel Jack reported the family missing to the RCMP. The time factor was a major obstacle. Witness reports are notoriously unreliable, and after this much time, it would be even harder to nail down a timeline or to find a reliable description of the suspect and his vehicle.
Theories:
Several theories have circulated over the years. At first police believed the family was likely involved in an accident, the vehicle hidden in dense bush off the side of a road. But the area was thoroughly searched, and the unidentified driver—the man who offered them the job—would also likely have been reported missing by his family or his employer, but no reports ever came in. A second theory was that the job offer was real, but it wasn’t legal; something went wrong, and the family was killed. Another darker theory was that the kids were the target all along; the parents were quickly and quietly subdued and killed, and the kids taken by sex traffickers.
Doreen’s sister searched for the Jacks in Vancouver, and Mabel searched for them in the Prince George area. When her sister first went missing, Marlene says that the RCMP told her that if she went to the media, they would not talk to her about their investigation. She believed them, and for a long time she stayed silent. But tired of being stonewalled, Marlene was determined to get some answers. Over the years she has hassled police, taken her story to the media, and started a Facebook group called Missing Jack Family out of Prince George, which at the present time has 3,500 followers.
If you have any information about the Jack family’s disappearance, please contact the Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300. Or remain anonymous and call Crime Stoppers at 1(800) 222-8477.
Show Notes:
Sponsors: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours, Arsenal Pulp Press and Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro: Mark Dunn
Interviews: Marlene Jack, Marg Skin, Sgt. Aaron Whitehouse, Prince George RCMP
Buy me a coffee promo: McBride Communications and Media
Promo: Dark Poutine
Sources:
• Cold Case BC: The stories behind the province’s most sensational murder and missing person cases
• National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Truth-Gathering Process: Part 1 statement gathering (Smithers: International Reporting Inc., 2017)