The only reason the public knows that the RCMP's "only" person of interest, in Lisa Young's case, was Chris Adair is because Lisa's mother was brought into Adair's interrogation. An investigator told Joanne to hug the man who is partly responsible for her daughter's death.

It was a cruel tactic, and it didn't work anyway.

Joanne asked Adair to tell her where her daughter was. He responded, I can't. He then paused, and trailed off with I'm sorry, I don't mean to disrespect your family.

Lisa's parents both publicized Adair's name.

They, and the RCMP, were each threatened with lawsuits by Adair's family. RCMP then threatened to charge Lisa's parents with Obstruction of Justice, and early in 2003, they received a letter from the RCMP formally cutting them off of any further information about their daughter's case.

Adair comes from a wealthy and well-connected family, and grew up in the farming town of Yorkton, Saskatchewan. He spent many summers with his grandparents in Qualicum Beach, a half hour drive North of Nanaimo. His grandfather was the mayor of the nearby City of Parksville, and his grandmother was a high-end real estate agent.

The mint condition Jaguar XJ-40, which drove Lisa to her murder, belonged to Adair's grandparents.

Chris attended one year of law school in Kamloops, and then worked for a shady investment brokerage. It was a co-worker from that company who, years later, offered a US$50,000 reward in relation to Lisa's case.

Adair's history with BC Courts

In May 2000, there was a lawsuit between Adair and a Nanaimo woman, and a few months later he was sued by a bank. In 2001 he was sued by a Nanaimo payday loan company, and, in 2002 and 2003, sued by the courts, possibly for unpaid criminal fines. He was also sued twice by a Nanaimo mini storage, in 2003 and 2014.

Adair had several prior criminal convictions in Alberta, and British Columbia court records show several more convictions between 2000 and 2002. In 2001 he was convicted in Kamloops for 2 counts of Fraud, and sentenced to 9 months Jail. During that trial, he committed an Assault, apparently in the courtroom. That conviction came part-way through the 9 month jail term, adding an extra month of jail. During the same jail term he was also convicted for credit card theft, related to an Edmonton incident dating back to 2000. This got him a $500 fine. He was released after 10 months in jail, exactly 2 months before the night he met Lisa.

He did not kill Lisa but he drove her to the place where she was severely beaten. He may have taken part. Hours later he dropped off Lisa and her soon-to-be killer, back at the man's home, across the street from Colliery Dam Park, the same location as the first houseparty. Soon after, Chris left town, back to Kamloops.

When RCMP tracked him down, he was charged with Fraud and Theft stemming from a 2001 incident in Kamloops. These charges were used as a reason to transport him back to Nanaimo, but something happened:

The 2 charges were transferred "out" from Kamloops to Nanaimo, but only 1 charge was transferred "in" to Nanaimo. The Fraud charge had disappeared without a trace, during the transfer.

When he was convicted in Nanaimo for the Theft, he was given an unusually lenient sentence, considering his history of recidivism. He was given a 3 month Conditional Sentence Order (CSO) meaning he would have no jail time, as long as he neither left the province, nor broke any laws, for 3 months. 30 days later, both those conditions were broken, when Adair assaulted a police officer in Saskatchewan.

He was again shipped back to Nanaimo, where he had to serve the remainder of his sentence in jail. This was the same point in time that RCMP received information which led to their first search, in the vicinity of Biggs Road. Biggs is a short road that is home to basically nothing except for the prison itself.

Also, around the same time, Adair was convicted for assaulting the police officer, but was sentenced to just 1 day in jail, despite having a history of assaults.

Reports suggest that, soon after his release from jail, Adair moved to Japan, then a couple years later, to the country of Turkey where he apparently continues to live working as an “expat” immigration lawyer.

In 2016, the first podcast about Lisa’s disappearance was released by a popular Australian crime podcast called Casefile. The episode included publicly-available information about Adair. Soon after, the podcaster received a takedown request, apparently from Adair, demanding that his information be removed. The anonymous podcast host produced a short follow-up episode about this. He declined the removal request, and instead invited Adair to contact him, to share his side of the story. Adair has not responded to the invitation.

During the next few years, at least another 3 dozen podcast episodes have been released about Lisa’s disappearance, by podcasters all around the world.

Adair’s “interrogation” about Lisa’s disappearance took place, oddly, in Parksville (which is town where Adair’s grandfather was previously Mayor, and is located partway between Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach.)

Initial (but unverified) research indicates that Adair had multiple family members who were lawyers, his father being a corporate lawyer who worked out of a large Toronto firm.