National cold case investigators have added the Chilliwack case of missing Kristofer Couture to their Please Bring Me Home website.
Couture’s car was found abandoned in January in the parking lot of the Elk/Thurston trail in Chilliwack.
The hope is that the cold case website started in Southern Ontario will flush out something new on the local case.
READ MORE: Searchers combed the hills
Please Bring Me Home is the brainchild of Nick Oldrieve and two others from Owen Sound, Ontario.
Each page on the site maps out the known facts of a case, and encourages the public to come forward, anonymously if desired, with any nuggets of new information.
“The amount of times I’ve heard from someone, ‘I doubt this is important, but…’ is unbelievable,” Oldrieve said. “They key to solving a case could be something as simple as, ‘I smelled a foul odour’ while they were out in the bush or hunting.”
They started off working on a handful of regional cases in Ontario, and saw solid success after tips started trickling in. They’ve found missing people, and managed to locate remains, based on a tip they were sent, which later led to an arrest.
But after a W5 television episode about their work was broadcast in October 2019, the Please Bring Me Home website exploded. They were flooded with messages asking for assistance, and have expanded operations across Canada since it aired.
“We received hundreds of requests,” Oldrieve said.
The Couture case was among those messaged requests for help, and it has now been added to the site.
“We reached out to Eva Couture (Kristofer’s mother) to see if she was interested and she said ‘Absolutely,'” Oldrieve said.
There’s been no sign of the young man since January, despite numerous search efforts, billboards seeking tips, and a cash reward of $10,000 to spur memories.
Kristofer Couture arrived in the Lower Mainland in January from Edmonton to work construction.
Couture reported to work in Maple Ridge on Jan. 25 and worked out at a gym in Burnaby on that same day. His credit and debit cards were used fraudulently in April, but he never used his phone after Jan. 25.
Please Bring Me Home has grown recently from the three founders, to a team of 18, including retired detectives, and cadaver dogs, working in tandem, soliciting tips.
They’re not out to implicate any one, or point fingers in terms of any crimes committed.
“That’s the job of police,” Oldrieve said.
The anonymous tips they solicit can often turn up surprising information.
“At the end of the day, if we can just continue to give the family some hope that something is being done to move the case forward, then by all means we will,” Oldrieve concluded.
READ MORE: Family begs for any info out there
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