A group of people are planning to walk down Highway 6 to bring attention to a local cold case.
Distant cousins Shawn and Leslie Jones (14 and 15 years old) were last seen by family on October 22, 1993.
According to the story surrounding their disappearance, they said they were going to a dance in Lion’s Head. They stole Shawn’s grandmother’s car and headed north up the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula where they crashed the car.
It’s believed the boys then hitchhiked from Cape Croker to Wiarton.
Please Bring Me Home is a locally founded organization that searches for missing people. It has expanded its scope from a local focus to also include Canada and the United States.
Co-founder Nick Oldrieve says Shawn and Leslie were dropped off in downtown Wiarton around October 26, 1993.
Between October 26th and 28th, they were believed to have been seen together at the Tim Horton’s in Owen Sound.
Oldrieve says, “Our belief is that they stayed in hiding trying to evade law enforcement for sometime after this. Sometime after October 1993. We don’t beleive that they’re alive at this time because that would mean that in 31 years they’ve never reached out to any family members, and we just find that not believable.”
It’s also though that Leslie was seen on Wellesley Street in Toronto in the late summer of 1996. They might have also gone by ‘Shawn Steven Lee Freeman’ and ‘Leslie Waukey.’
It’s been 31 years since they went missing, and the group is walking 31 kms to raise awareness.
“Hopefully some information will come in about Shawn and Leslie’s movements after they were last seen in Wiarton,” says Oldrieve.
The walk will start at the main intersection in Ferndale at 8 a.m. on Sunday, August 25th. The walk will proceed down Highway 6 to the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Environment Office in the south end of Wiarton. There will be a barbecue there after.
“If you can’t partake in the walk, please come to the barbecue,” says Oldrieve. The families of the missing boys will be there as well.
“Someone knows where these two boys went after leaving Wiarton. Someone knows,” says Oldrieve.
Please Bring Me Home has an anonymous tip hotline. The number is 1-226-702-2728.
You can also submit a tip online here: https://pleasebringmehome.com/anonymoustip/
Update: Oldrieve says a story about the boys being chased out of a home in Wiarton — (as police came in, it was believed, the boys went out the back of the house)–Has recently been disproved, according to Oldrieve.