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Family still searching for missing sister 50 years later

Diane Prevost went missing in 1966, and her family is still searching for answers
DianePrevost
Lise Nastuk (right) holds up a picture of her sister, Diane Prevost, who went missing at Grundy Lake Provincial Park in September of 1966. The family is still searching for her. Photo: dianeprevost.info.

Lise Nastuk last saw her sister, Diane Prevost, 50 years ago near the shore of Grundy Lake.

Parents Bernard and Claire had taken their family to Grundy Lake Provincial Park for an early fall vacation in 1966. The couple's youngest daughter, Diane, who was just two years old at the time, disappeared without a trace. She's not been seen or heard from in five decades.

The 50-year anniversary of Diane's disappearance was Sept. 17, but the family is still searching — for Diane, for answers and for closure.

“My main questions are just what if and why,” Nastuk told Sudbury.com. “Did she have a good life? Why did someone take her?”

Police will not close a missing person file until it has been resolved and the family still has an open line of communication with the Parry Sound OPP, the detachment responsible for Diane Prevost's case.

Getting to the point where an open line was established, along with securing the assistance of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection  (CCCP) was a long road, and at one point Diane was not even in any police database.

“Police had lost her file,” said Nastuk. “Originally, it was the Steel River OPP detachment that was handling it, but they don't exist anymore. Then her case went to Parry Sound, then North Bay, and now it's Parry Sound.”

Jessica Huzyk, who works with the child safety and family advocacy division of the CCCP, is the primary case worker for the Prevost family.

“We're here to provide emotional support for them, and to act as that constant in their lives,” Huzyk told Sudbury.com. “We're an agent to the family to keep them connected with the police and to help the family create awareness. We receive tips from the public as well and relay them to the OPP and family. 

"Someone out there knows what happened to (Diane) and we want to find answers.”

Answers are exactly what Lise and her family are hoping for, and at the very least, some kind of closure when it comes to their missing loved one.

“My dad's wish was to find her one way or another,” said Nastuk. “The worst part of it is just not knowing. We want to keep the message out there and keep the discussion going in hopes that someone, somewhere knows something.”

Lise is the third child in the family of five children. She was just three and half when her sister went missing.

“I don't really remember that day, but my sister Joanne does,” said Nastuk. “I guess I've kind of become the spokesperson for this.”

The family has created DianePrevost.info to help them in their efforts to keep the story alive and keep Diane's story circulating. The website provides information about Diane's disappearance, along with photos, video and a notice to Diane that her family is still looking for her. It also includes sketches of what an adult Diane might look like.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection is asking anyone who remembers anything about Diane's disappearance that September in 1966 to contact MissingKids.ca at 1-866-543-8477.

“I hope every day that she's out there somewhere, that maybe someone took her and she has had a good life,” said Nastuk. “I still have hope, even if it's been 50 years since I saw her.”


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