More than six months have passed since the disappearance of Owen Kiernan Rooney and police and Rooney’s family are no closer to finding the missing Australian man.
Grand Forks RCMP’s Staff Sgt. Jim Harrison says that his detachment stays in contact with Rooney’s family on a regular basis and there haven’t been any developments.
He did say that Grand Forks Search and Rescue conducted a search of the Hardy Mountain area on Feb. 12 but, like other searches, it failed to yield any results.
“We want to solve this thing,” Harrison says. “It’s just been a huge, huge file. I mean we’re up to 850 pages on the file already, it’s just monstrous. It’s stretched from Alberta to all of B.C. It’s been a big effort and we’re still active as Hell in the investigation, as far as following up on tips and going back and (re-examining) things that are already done just to make sure – it’s not going to end until we get something substantive to work with.”
Back in December, there were reports of Rooney being sighted on Vancouver Island with a group of people selling dreamcatchers, but Harrison says that there haven’t been any such reports lately.
“We did identify one guy amongst the dreamcatcher sellers – at least we had a picture of him – and it definitely was not Owen,” says Harrison.
As for Owen’s family, they have been following up on all leads and while there have been reports that they will return to Australia, they haven’t made a firm decision yet. They are still hoping people with any information will come forward.
“We will have to go home at some stage but we have not decided when that is yet,” explains Kelly Rooney, Owen’s sister.
“It’s a difficult decision to make. Australia is a long way to go home with unanswered questions. That’s why we need anyone with any information about Owen to come forward, either to us or the police.
“There are still questions we need answered. Why was Owen at Christina Lake? Did he know anyone there? Did he go back there after the hospital? Where is he now? Someone has to know these answers. We just need these people to come forward and help,” she says.
Owen Rooney was last seen at the hospital in Grand Forks on Aug. 14 and stands 175 centimetres (5 feet, 9 inches) and weighs 73 kilograms (161 pounds). He has short brown hair and two tattoos, one on his left shoulder of a circle with a Celtic star around it and one on his right calf of a triangle with a kangaroo inside with the words “Australian made” under.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Grand Forks RCMP at 250-442-8288, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or through a website the family has set up (www.find-owen.com).