The one-year anniversary of the disappearance of Owen Kiernan Rooney is approaching (Aug. 14) and the Australian man is no closer to being found.
Owen’s sisters, Kelly and Bree, returned to the Shambhala Music Festival in Salmo, B.C. this past weekend to hand out cards and spread awareness about their missing brother – the festival was one of the places Owen was seen before disappearing.
“It’s pretty surreal going through it again; coming back and we just dropped into a few places and people are realizing it’s been a year now,” Bree told the Grand Forks Gazette.
“It’s coming up to Shambhala and everyone’s going through the towns again.”
There have been a number of leads, including supposed sightings on Vancouver Island and Alberta around Christmas and into the New Year but none have bore fruit, which has frustrated Owen’s family.
“You’re always hopeful, that (a sighting or lead) is the one or this is how the story ends, with a good ending but it hasn’t turned out yet,” Kelly said, adding that it was exhausting as well.
“You try to keep yourself on an even keel until you find out what’s actually happening.”
The RCMP is still actively investigating although, the Grand Forks RCMP’s Staff Sgt. Jim Harrison said that the general investigation section (GIS) in Trail has “picked up the ball” on the file.
Harrison said that another search was done in early-July and no new leads were turned up at that time.
“We did a search up in the Wilgress Lake, B.C. Mines area and nothing was found. The local search and rescue and Const. Bell from our office went out as search co-ordinator,” he said.
“We did that particular area simply because when we looked at the map it was one area we hadn’t done a lot of searching in. We had no reasonable grounds to believe he was there it was just one of those things that we’ve searched high and low but we haven’t touched this area, so let’s have a look.”
Harrison also said that local RCMP recently did a door-knocking campaign around the hospital area in Grand Forks to see if residents could recall seeing Owen that day but it yielded nothing.
“There was no information at all but everybody in the neighbourhood was aware, of course, that he went missing, but again, there’s no new information coming forward,” he said.
The Grand Forks detachment’s staff sergeant said it was considering doing a similar type of canvass in the Christina Lake area as well to coincide with the
anniversary of the disappearance with the hopes of possibly getting some leads from seasonal residents of the lake.
“We’re hoping to touch base with people who were there around the time that (Owen) would’ve been in that community, that day and a bit that he was there, and who perhaps left after that happened and weren’t aware that we were looking for him,” Harrison said.
Owen Rooney had broken into a house at Christina Lake and a there was a violent confrontation, according to Harrison.
He said that RCMP officers did talk to Owen, who blamed himself for the confrontation and also declined to give a statement.
He said that the RCMP can’t make people talk if they aren’t willing to and he said Rooney was an adult making a conscious decision not to go any further with the incident.
Owen Kiernan Rooney stands 175 cm (5’9”) and weighs about 73 kg (161 pounds).
At the time of his disappearance he had short brown hair and he has two tattoos, one of a circle with a Celtic star on his left shoulder blade and another of a triangle and a kangaroo on his right calf.
He was last seen at Boundary Hospital in Grand Forks and if anyone has information on his whereabouts they are asked to call Grand Forks RCMP at 250-442-8288 or Kelly Rooney at 250-859-8313.