This story was originally published online on December 20, 2006, just a few months after Aaron Derbyshire went missing. The family had issued an award since his disappearance on Sept. 30th of that year and they were anxiously counting down the hours before the deadline they set for the tips.
The Derbyshire family wants one thing for Christmas—to know where Aaron is.
Only five days remain until the holiday, which is also the date a $100,000 reward for information about the disappearance of Aaron Derbyshire expires.
The 22-year-old vanished from the Level nightclub in downtown Kelowna early on Sept. 30, and hasn’t been heard from since.
“The only way we would be celebrating right now is if we had Aaron home,” said his mom, Glenda Derbyshire. “It’s not looking like it’s going to be a happy Christmas.”
Normally at this time of year, the Derbyshire boys help their mom decorate Christmas cookies, and the family goes on ski trips together in the winter.
“We’re missing that this year,” she said.
The family spoke out again yesterday, hoping to twig the conscience of someone who knows what happened to Aaron.
“We fully believe there are people out there…that know what happened,” said Glenda. “I would really hope that their conscience would be harping on them constantly to do what’s right. I would really hope that they make that phone call.”
The wait for information about their son’s disappearance, Glenda told the Capital News, has been “horrible.”
“It’s like all of our lives are in limbo,” she said.
She also said the lack of information since the reward was announced three weeks ago has been “really disheartening.”
“We were hoping that we would have the key tips,” she said. “This past week has been discouraging in a lot of ways.
“There hasn’t been anything substantial that the police have to go on, other than they’re working on a couple of other leads that they’ve had from the beginning.”
The family will not extend the time the reward is available, Glenda said.
“This has been enough time…To prolong this agony is just difficult.”
She’s hoping her second oldest son will still be found alive, but acknowledges it may not happen.
“If Aaron is deceased…we would just rather have something,” she said.
“Aaron may not have anymore time, but other people out there do, and hopefully, they’ll have mercy on us.”
The family says the disappearance of Aaron just doesn’t make sense.
“I know that his boss was very happy with him and his work,” said Glenda. “He had a good life going on.”
As well, he didn’t have his cell phone with him. It was later found in a work vehicle.
“It’s not like him at all to not be with his cell phone,” she said.
Aaron, she said, is a “strong, courageous man” who was not the type to “get into someone’s face.”
“He was just a really decent guy,” she said. “He is very, very much greatly missed right now.”
Even if there is no news of Aaron by midnight on Monday, Glenda said: “We’re not ever going to stop looking and wondering and asking questions and also hoping that people are going to be aware of this.”
When the reward was announced last month, RCMP said they had interviewed approximately 200 people and addressed 116 tasks in the case.
No update on the investigation was available from the RCMP yesterday.
Derbyshire is described as standing five foot, 11 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds.
He has curly brown hair and was wearing blue jeans and a button-down shirt the night he went missing.
Cheryl Wierda was a staff reporter for the Capital News when the story was written; she is a contributes to our coverage of court cases today.
