Disappearance of Emma Fillipoff

Emma Fillipoff
Born (1986-01-06)January 6, 1986
Disappeared November 28, 2012
Victoria, British Columbia
Status Missing for 3 years, 2 months and 23 days
Nationality Canadian
Ethnicity Caucasian

Emma Fillipoff (born January 6, 1986) has been missing since Nov 28, 2012, vanishing from in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, at the age of 26.

Disappearance

Fillipoff was last seen in the immediate vicinity of the Empress hotel in Victoria between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm on November 28, 2012. She was observed being interviewed by Victoria police. Her red Mazda MPV '93 van was found in the Chateau Victoria parking lot with almost all her belongings in it, including her passport, library card, digital camera, clothes, a pillow, assorted ornaments, laptop, and recently borrowed library books. It is believed she used the van as storage. She spoke with Chateau Victoria staff at 7 am on the morning of her disappearance.[1]

Fillipoff's disappearance was the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television program, The Fifth Estate.[2]

Circumstances of disappearance

Fillipoff arrived in Victoria from Ontario in the fall of 2011. She had brief employment at the Red Fish Blue Fish seasonal seafood restaurant in Victoria’s Inner Harbour. She left the job on October 31, 2012, as the work was seasonal. She assured co-workers she would be back in the Spring.[3]

Unknown to family, Fillipoff had stayed at the Sandy Merriman House women's shelter on and off since February.[4] On November 23 Fillipoff was captured on security video at the Victoria YMCA, entering, then leaving, then entering multiple times as if avoiding someone on the outside.[5]

On November 26 Fillipoff phoned her mother in Ontario, asking if she could come home. Her mother said, "of course".[6] As such the mother flew out to Victoria, unknown to Fillipoff, arriving at Sandy Merriman house at about 11 pm, late on the 28th three hours after Emma had been last seen at the Empress Hotel.[7]

Early on the day of November 28, Fillipoff was captured on a 7-Eleven store video on Government Street purchasing a pre-paid cell phone.[8] The store video showed her hesitating in leaving the store, seemingly checking the street outside. She later hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the airport, however she left the taxi for lack of adequate fare. [9]She reportedly left the Sandy Merriman House women’s shelter about 6 p.m. that day.[10] She returned to the 7-Eleven store to buy a pre-paid credit card. Later, she was seen walking barefoot in front of the Empress hotel. An acquaintance of hers, Dennis Quay,[11] called 911 to say a woman was in severe distress outside the hotel.[12]

Victoria police arrived and spent 45 minutes talking to her. They got her name and decided that she was not a threat to herself or anyone else. They released her and no one has seen her since 7:45 pm that night. Police met Fillipoff's mother at Sandy Merriman House and by midnight she was classified as a missing person.

Investigators explored more than 200 leads, turning up minimal information. Most evidence indicates she was planning to return home to Ottawa, but there’s no proof she ever left the city. The credit card[13] was allegedly found on the side of the road by a stranger to the north of where Fillipoff disappeared, whom the police tracked by the purchase of cigarettes with the card.[3] The cellphone she bought had never been activated.

Fillipoff's writings

Fillipoff wrote copious prose about her time in Victoria.[14] None of it indicated that she was being stalked. Even though some of it indicated she was depressed, experts who appeared on the fifth estate said the writing did not have the hallmarks of suicide. However, Fillipoff's mother learned from the Sandi Merriman staff that Emma. “required both physical and medical intervention.”[15]

Possible leads

The Campbell River Courier-Islander newspaper reported in May 2014 that in Gastown, Vancouver, business owners Joel and Lori Sellen witnessed a man in their store throwing out a “missing” poster.[16] The store owners reported that it was a $25,000 reward poster for Fillipoff, and that the man said: "It’s one of those missing persons posters, except she’s not missing, she’s my girlfriend and she ran away ‘cause she hates her parents." The owners immediately called the police, and security video captured an image of the man.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Emma Fillipoff disappeared 3 years ago, man of interest still unidentified - Victoria Buzz". 6 January 2016.
  2. ↑ "Finding Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Emma is missing". Interlake Group. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "Finding Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "Finding Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "Help Find Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  7. ↑ "Three Years After Vanishing, Where is Emma Fillipoff - Times-Colonist". 28 November 2015.
  8. ↑ "Help Find Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  9. ↑ "Finding Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  10. ↑ Derek Spalding. "Emma Fillipoff vanished, leaving a mysterious trail through Victoria". Times Colonist. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  11. ↑ "Missing People Canada - Missing Woman in Victoria – EMMA FILLIPOFF, 27". Missing People Canada. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Search for missing Victoria woman Emma Fillipoff spreads to Vancouver - Vancouver Sun, May 2014
  13. ↑ Derek Spalding. "Fillipoff's file a rare puzzler; police seeing fewer missing-persons cases". Times Colonist. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "Help Find Emma - the fifth estate - CBC News". cbc.ca. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "Three Years After Vanishing, Where is Emma Fillipoff - Times-Colonist". 28 November 2015.
  16. ↑ Possible break in Emma Fillipoff missing woman case - Campbell River Courier-Islander, May 2014

External links

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