Where is Michael Smith?

Michael Bradley 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) Case Reference 2014003272

I put up a post about Michael on my Cold Case BC Facebook page yesterday—55 years after he disappeared. He is listed under missing children on the RCMP-administered website, which says that he was born in 1950, was 5’10”, had long brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing white pants, a yellow shirt and a black suede jacket when he vanished. I couldn’t find out any more information, and I ended the post asking if anyone knew Michael and could tell me more about him.

This is what I now know:

Mike lived at 639 East 3^rd Street in North Vancouver. He went to Ridgeway Elementary, Sutherland and onto North Vancouver Senior Secondary. 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.”

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 that summer. Mike was there on June 7, the day that his close friend and neighbour, Bob Tribe dove off Siwash Rock into shallow water, and died.

1960s:

For the young, the ‘60s were all about the Beatles, Stanley Park Be-Ins, protests and weed. Shortly before he disappeared, Art says that Mike’s mum found his stash. “She was putting away the laundry and found a couple of ounces in his sock draw. Of course, that freaked her out.”

Brenna Lee was just a small child when her uncle Mike went missing and she didn’t learn of his existence until decades later. Her father, Ray, told her that he and another brother, Pat, took the weed and threw it out. A fight ensued and Mike was really upset. It’s possible that he owed someone money.

James Howe lived across the lane from Mike and was two years his junior. He says Mike was devastated after his friend died in front of him, and believes he left to start a new life. James 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 down the street and he didn’t even tell her.”

Still Missing:

This was one of many comments left on my post: “He was my uncle. My mom and dad are the ones who filed the police report. My entire life I grieved him. My dad and he were super close but had argued just before Michael was last seen. Granny ALWAYS spoke of him, missing him greatly, and before my dad passed, he asked me to see if I could find Michael. It’s my biggest regret, I couldn’t fulfil dad’s wish.” Kim.

Mike, if you’re out there, and we sincerely hope that you are, please get in touch. Know that your family searched for you for years and have never stopped missing you.

In my new book, Cold Case BC, one of the chapters tells the story of Lucy Johnson, 25 and mother of two went missing from her Surrey home in 1961. For decades the RCMP believed that her husband had murdered her and disposed of her body—they even excavated his backyard. In 2013, Lucy was found alive and well and living in Whitehorse.

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