Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A national cold case organization known as Please Bring Me Home (PBMH) is aiming to solve the 20-year-old missing persons case of Ruth Jackson, last seen in Denbigh.
PBMH is appealing to residents who may have any clue that might help them solve the two-decade-old mystery.
Jackson, who was an 82-year-old resident of New Dundee, On. at the time, was last seen in a small store accompanied by her husband on June 13, 1999. They were reportedly visiting a cottage they had in the Denbigh area at the time.
It is believed she and her husband were on their way back to the cottage when Ruth, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, left the family van and wandered away. Her husband was found later in Tamworth, alone and disoriented with no recollection how he got there or the day his wife wandered away from the van. It’s reported he may have been in diabetic shock at the time.
The Napanee OPP at the time conducted a search but Ruth was never found. Foul play was never ruled out.
“We accept any family member that wants us to look into missing persons cold cases,” explains Nick Oldrieve, who launched PBMH in early 2018. “They can forward us an e-mail and we will do an intake process with them and add it to our site.”
Ruth Jackson’s case is one of 16 Ontario-based mysteries listed on their site, ranging from last seen in 1963 to 2018. The PBMH team is made up of experts in the field of search and rescue, forensics, law enforcement and private investigators, among others.
“If it’s a foul play case, we’re looking for ‘I heard this is where she is’,” Oldrieve said of the types of tips they’re looking for, even 20 years after the fact. “If it’s not a foul play case, it could be as simple as ‘I was in the area at this time, there was a foul odour or I was living here and hunting here at the time and we came across this but we didn’t think anything of it’. It’s stuff that people really don’t think is important but even if they don’t think it’s important, we beg them to come forward anyway.”
Oldrieve says tips that might seem insignificant on their own may match a lead they have on file and could help spur a major break through.
Anyone with any information can submit anonymous tips to www.PleaseBringMeHome.com.