Where is Mandy Thompson?
The 72-year-old Barrie senior left her north end home at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 3, 2017 and never came back.
“It’s hard. You just feel so helpless,” said step-daughter Lynn Ratuszny. “Definitely always on top of mind. We miss her and we’d like an answer as to what happened to her."
Ratuszny says Thompson was diagnosed with Alzheimers a few years ago and had wandered before.
The morning she vanished began with a regular routine.
"Dad was making breakfast in the kitchen. She would normally go sit in the living room at the front of the house and then he would come out with breakfast and they would eat," said Ratuszny.
"He realized it was quiet for longer than it should’ve been and he went to check on her and she had gone out the front door.”
Mandy’s footprints were visible on the driveway in the freshly fallen snow.
Her husband of 20 years jumped in the car to see if her could catch her but Mandy's footprints were lost in many others at a school down the street.
Her husband then called police who responded within minutes.
Mandy's family members also scoured the city in their vehicles but she was nowhere to be found.
By Saturday, police had received tips that the senior was spotted walking on Steele Street and other streets nearby.
Search efforts intensified.
“What they look for is decision points. When she got somewhere she couldn’t go straight, she’s got to make a decision should I go this way or that way," explained Lynn.
On Monday, a business owner came forward with surveillance camera video of Mandy from 10 a.m. Friday morning walking north on Penetanguishene Road.
It’s the the last known sighting of the senior.
“Obviously we were looking for anything that would confirm where she’d gone. So that was the first real concrete piece of evidence saying she made it this far. She had walked 10 kilometres in three hours," Ratuszny said.
The search shifted to Oro-Medonte Township just outside the city with additional officers from the OPP, snowmobiles, K9 and helicopter. Al told, Barrie Police, Barrie Fire, the OPP, South Simcoe Police and Georgian Bay Search and Rescue were involved in search efforts.
There was another lead that is still unresolved.
Investigators received video surveillance of a black tow truck parked on Penetanguishene Road near Napoleon Home Comfort on Friday, February 3, at 10:59 a.m.
Police believe the tow truck had been hooking up a vehicle and hoped the tow operator might have seen Mandy.
Despite numerous public appeals, the tow truck driver has not come forward nor the driver of the car being towed.
A feeling of helplessness set in for Mandy’s family.
“I guess by Monday I was really hopeful that somehow she had gotten herself locked into a building over the weekend or that somebody would come in Monday morning and find her. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”
Mandy was well-known in Barrie after working for years at a chiropractor’s office.
Lynn recalls her step-mother’s love of sports, especially curling and Mandy’s beautiful backyard garden.
The public reaction to the senior’s disappearance was an eye-opener for the family about the power of social media.
Yet there were still people unaware of Mandy’s disappearance.
"It was so surprising even five days in, people that live right along Penetangishene Rd. when you would ask them and they would have no idea. So with all the posters out there, on the news, social media, police searching and people would say ‘No I hadn’t heard.’”
Seven months on, Mandy's family is once again urging people to search for any sign of her.
Cottagers, farmers, residents are being asked to walk fields, check properties including barns, sheds, vehicles, garages - any receptacles.
“If they find a shoe. If they find a coat - something. We just want it to be in the minds that we’re still searching—call in," said Rutuszny.
"Being in limbo and you just wish - you just hope - that eventually you’ll have an answer as to what happened to her. As time passes.you begin to think maybe we’ll never know."
Mandy is described as having a medium build with short red-brown hair, brown eyes.
She was wearing a black knee length jacket, white sweater, jeans and white running shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call a tip line at (705) 725-7025 ext. 2160. Anonymous tips can also be provided to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or anonymously online at www.tipsubmit.com
