The mother of a missing Saanich man is calling for the public’s help locating Sean Hart, 34, who was last seen leaving the Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health facility on Nov. 6
Nearly three weeks after the 34-year-old’s unexpected disappearance, Penny Hart travelled to Saanich from Calgary in an effort to draw attention to her son’s disappearance. On the morning of Nov. 26, Penny made a public statement during a joint press conference with the Saanich Police Department.
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| Sean Hart, 34, was last seen leaving the Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health facility on Nov. 6. (Saanich Police Department) |
“I’m so concerned. It’s so cold,” Penny said, explaining that her son has schizoaffective disorder and has a tendency to walk long distances barefoot. Hart has gone missing from Seven Oaks several times before, but never for longer than six days. He’s now been missing for 20 days and Penny said she is extremely worried.
“He, at this stage, would be very manic. He’d be hallucinating, hearing voices and acting very erratic,” Penny said. The fact that no one has seen him yet, suggests to her that he isn’t in a public place. In the past, Penny said he has gravitated towards the woods and this is where she suspects he is now.
“He doesn’t gravitate toward people. He tends to isolate,” she said. “So he won’t be in a shelter or a tent city or any of those places. That’s what’s really concerning.”
As of 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning, approximately 45 Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization (PEMO) search and rescue volunteers have been scouring Mount Douglas Park–near where Seven Oaks is located– in search of any evidence of Hart’s whereabouts. There is no sign of him so far.
READ ALSO: Saanich police still searching for man who unexpectedly left mental health facility
Penny has been in Victoria since Nov. 18, plastering missing posters all over the city and asking residents if they have seen her son.
Hart, a Caucasian man who stands six-feet tall and about 130 pounds, has blue eyes and long, curly, brown hair. He was last seen dressed in black clothing and wearing a white mask.
Penny said she had spoken to her son just two days before he went missing and that he had been doing better than ever before.
“Sean was doing so well. I had gotten my son back,” she said. She explained that Hart first got sick when he was 15 after taking copious amounts of LSD. In the last year, she said that he had been stable and Seven Oaks had been allowing him more freedoms. Penny believes that this, combined with a relationship that went bad, were too much and triggered him to leave on Nov. 6.
Because Hart has schizophrenia and has been off his medication for 20 days now, he requires immediate medical attention. Police ask anyone who spots him should call 911 and not approach him. A Mental Health Act warrant has been issued for his arrest.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the Saanich police non-emergency line at 250-475-4321.
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Penny Hart is emotional outside the Saanich Police Department as she pleads for helpt to find her son Sean Hart last seen Nov. 6 at a health institution in Saanich. (Devon Bidal/News Staff)
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