Vanishing points: Grappling with the grim reality of people who go missing

Column: Mickleburgh The disappearance of Nancy Guthrie pulled the issue from the back of milk cartons onto the front page, but the fact is hundreds of people are declared missing every day. Most cases are eventually resolved, but for some, there is no closure. The absence lingers throughout a lifetime, offering no answers, just the aching memory of what's lost. Rod Mickleburgh shares his story of two friends who left for a new life in the Maritimes, never to be seen again. By Rod Mickleburgh More than fifty years ago, my good friends Terry Pettit and Ronald Yakimchuk packed most of their belongings into the back seat of a beat-up, 1959 red Volkswagen, tied a kayak to the roof and headed east from Edmonton to start a new life in the Maritimes. Along the way, they planned to attend a friend’s wedding in Montreal. They didn’t show up.  Nor have they showed up anywhere, since. Somewhere along the way, the couple simply vanished from the face of the earth. The mystery of their ...