Ten-year-old Joanne Pedersen was last seen in a Chilliwack phone booth at 8:20 p.m. on Saturday February 19, 1983. She had been calling her mother to tell her that she had been locked out of her house and asked if she could pick her up from the Penny Pincher store on Vedder Road. Just as her mother went to talk to Joanne, a young man got on the phone and told her that if she wasn’t there in half-an-hour he would call the police. Her mother was there within 20-minutes, but both Joanne and the man were gone.
Vanished:
A huge air and ground search followed but failed to find any trace of Joanne.
Joanne was just four foot 6. She wore her brown hair short with bangs reaching just below her eyebrows. She was wearing cream-coloured pants, a blue and white sweater and a pink jacket. Her family called her JoJo.
Mystery Man:
The mystery man from the phone booth quickly became the prime suspect and the focus of the police investigation and of future media reports.
Joanne went to Watson Elementary school, in Chilliwack, in the Fraser Valley region of British Columbia. It’s about 100 kilometres east of Vancouver. And up until 1997, there was a huge Canadian Forces Base called Camp Chilliwack situated around Vedder Crossing which was quite close to where Joanne was last seen.
By November 1983, Chilliwack RCMP had interviewed more than 3,000 people and 300 possible suspects.
And, then Joanne disappeared from the media for the next 25 years.
On February 15 2008 the media published a composite drawing of the mystery man and appealed for him to come forward. The mystery man, police said, was in his 20s, of average build and just over six feet tall.
Police still believed he was key to the case but rather than see him as a suspect in Joanne’s disappearance, they believed that he was trying to help her.
New Leads:
The video and the media stories led to 50 new tips, and most importantly, an anonymous letter that police believed was written by the mystery man.
Another 12 years went by. And then in February 2023 – on the 40th anniversary of Joanne’s disappearance, police told the media that they had identified the mystery man.
Joanne’s case file is 1983-2535. If you have any information about her disappearance please call Chilliwack RCMP at 604-792-4611 or if you wish to remain anonymous, call crime stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Copies of my new book, Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck, are available through my publisher Arsenal Pulp Press, or preorder from any independent bookstore across Canada
Show Notes:
Sponsor: Erin Hakin Jewellery
Music: Andreas Schuld ‘Waiting for You’
Intro: Mark Dunn
Sources and thanks to Global News:
© All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all blog content copyright Eve Lazarus.
7 comments on “The Disappearance of 10-year-old Joanne Pedersen”
Maybe take a look at the suspect for the wells gray murders. Similar hunting period. Goes after young girls.
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See his picture
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Who was the mystery man? It mentions the police had identified him.
Yes, they identified, interviewed and cleared him. His name was never released.
I have to wonder why he got on the phone telling the mother if she wasn’t there in 20 minutes he would call police. What made him believe Joanne was in danger if left there alone. Why wouldn’t he have told her to wait inside the store??? So many questions left unanswered.
The RCMP officer who was in charge of Joanne’s case and interviewed our “mystery man” gives a pretty good explanation in the podcast.
A gut wrenching story. Thanks Eve