Alberni Valley Times - June 3, 2003

Summary

Alberni Valley Times: Tue June 3, 2003 "What happened to Lisa Young?"

source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50189130

clip: https://lisamarieyoung.ca/n/avt20030603

[Reproduced under Copyright Act (Canada) s.29.2 — Fair Dealing for the purpose of news reporting]

What happened to Lisa Young?
Almost one year later, her family is still seeking answers

A Port Alberni grandmother has spent almost a year waiting for what was once a weekly phone call from her granddaughter, Lisa Young. Lisa disappeared in Nanaimo last summer, and Maureen Young now says "it feels like a part of me has been cut out."

She's hoping to keep the story of Lisa's disappearance alive in hopes that someone might know something about her disappearance.

"If anyone saw anything, or knew anyone..." she said. "We've got to keep the story alive."

Lisa's father Don Young, spoke to the Nanaimo Daily News last week about the family's struggle.

He speaks passionately, though in a calm voice, about the few facts he's gleaned about the disappearance last summer of Lisa, 21, and his growing impatience with the police investigation.

Lisa remains missing and while everyone suspects the worst, police have been unable to bring any certainty to the Youngs or the community about what happened to her. Young is sad and upset, but remains focused on his work as a delivery driver in Nanaimo.

"It's hard to drive sometimes; I don't want to have an accident."

Lisa Young left a downtown Nanaimo nightclub in the early hours of June 29 last year and has not been seen since. Don and his wife Joanne called police when on the holiday Monday their daughter had not been heard from. About a week later, police said they considered Lisa's disappearance foul play.

"Sadness turns to anger once in a while," said Young.

And that anger is in part at police, and in part at the man who drove the maroon Jaguar Lisa was last seen in. The man was questioned by police, but has not been named as a suspect. Young's frustration has led him to make his own inquiries in the last 10 months, and he is convinced of certain things which RCMP investigators are not commenting on publicly.

Lisa, he believes, went to a party at a Nanaimo Lakes Road residence after leaving the nightclub. He thinks she was given a date rape drug there and taken elsewhere.

"We hear she went to that party; they (the police) say she wasn't there," said Young.

In addition to being convinced about the Nanaimo Lakes Road party, Young in equally certain the driver of the Jaguar also knows something, as do people at the Nanaimo Lakes Road party.

"Disappearance still a mystery"

"I've got a feeling there a who know something, but they can't say any thing because they're afraid," he said.

Young said he's not heard from the police in three months, and that they have no interest in his suggestion of a Crime Stoppers spot.

"How could a Crime Stoppers spot hurt?" he asked.

Const. Jack Eubank, spokesman for the Nanaimo RCMP said police have gone from nearly daily briefings with the Youngs to less frequent contact because there is little new to tell them.

When more information arises which police can share, he said, they will.

"We completely understand the emotions Don and Joanne must be going through," said Eubank, "But there haven't been a lot of developments in the investigation."

Investigators, said Eubank, would also prefer that as the one-year marker of Lisa's disappearance approaches they could solve the case. Eubank also said that Crime Stoppers no longer does reenactments of crimes.

For now the Youngs are putting hope in a billboard to be put on Highway 19A near Petroglyph Park and media coverage.

The billboard will feature a photo of Lisa and a request for anyone with information to call police or Crime Stoppers.

"All we can do is keep it out there and hope somebody says something," said Young.

(With files from the Nanaimo Daily News)