Missing, never forgotten

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/06/2018 (2294 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the search for Eduardo Balaquit stretched into its fourth day Friday, news of his disappearance pulled at the heartstrings of others who have lived through the nightmare of having a loved one vanish.

Balaquit, 59, went missing Monday evening, shortly after heading to work at a business on the 300 block of Keewatin Street. The following morning, his vehicle was found abandoned in a nearby parking lot, with one of the windows smashed and his cellphone inside.

On Wednesday, the Winnipeg Police Service announced its homicide unit had taken over the investigation.

Having a case handed off from the missing persons unit is an experience Wilma Derksen knows intimately.

“To move from missing persons to the homicide unit was a relief in a way. Missing persons was worse. Homicide, well that’s a new level of horror, but the not knowing is just so horrific. It was hell, pure hell,” Derksen told the Free Press.

In November 1984, Derksen’s daughter, Candace, disappeared on her way home from school. Weeks later, Candace’s body was discovered in a Winnipeg lumber yard shed. The 13-year-old had been tied up and left to freeze to death.

“Finding Candace, as horrific as that was, it was such a huge relief, and when something so horrific is such a huge relief, that tells you how bad the not knowing was,” Derksen said Friday.

As horrible as the partial-closure Derksen received that day, there are others in Winnipeg who’ve been robbed even of that, including the families of Thelma Krull, Kevin Dilk and Scott Hadath, among others.

‘Finding Candace, as horrific as that was, it was such a huge relief, and when something so horrific is such a huge relief, that tells you how bad the not knowing was’– Wilma Derksen

Dilk, 50, and Hadath, 39, went missing in November 2016 and June 2017, respectively. Neither man has been seen since. Winnipeg police said Friday investigations into their disappearances are ongoing.

Meanwhile, next month will mark the third anniversary of the disappearance of Krull, a 57-year-old grandmother who vanished on a morning walk July 11, 2015. Each anniversary of her disappearance has been marked by an WPS news conference.

One tip received in the wake of the first anniversary news conference led to police announcing a potential suspect in Krull’s disappearance. A composite sketch was later released to the public, but no arrests have been made.

Krull was declared legally dead in September 2017, but the WPS case remains open and active.

Wanda Bretecher, Krull’s niece, told the Free Press her heart breaks thinking of what Eduardo Balaquit’s family has gone through this week.

“My heart goes out to the Balaquit family… There is not a day that goes by that I don’t wake up and wish that today will bring my family answers that will lead to an end to our continuing nightmare. I wish I could say that with time the pain becomes more manageable. It doesn’t,” she wrote Friday in a text message.

On Friday, Edward Balaquit, one of Eduardo’s two sons, announced on social media the family was holding two separate search parties – at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Since their father’s disappearance, the brothers have been searching nearly around the clock, keeping faith by keeping busy.

Derksen said she remembers the rush of adrenaline and panic that fuelled her own searches in the days following Candace’s disappearance.

“We just went into overdrive. Nothing else mattered. It’s kind of like a bottomless pit, a crazy, wild panic. It was pure desperation. We did anything we could think of,” she said.

On Thursday night, the WPS asked for the public’s assistance in tracking down Sean Perkins, 36, who went missing Tuesday. The following morning, city police reported he’d been safely located.

Derksen said she hopes for a similar ending to the saga unfolding for the Balaquit family. Short of that, she said she hopes they get answers — whatever they may be.

A police spokeswoman said there were no new updates in Balaquit’s case Friday, adding she was unable to say whether investigators were still out actively searching for him.

Whatever comes, and no matter the outcome, getting an answer is better than the suspended limbo and uncertainty other families have been left in, Derksen said.

“I know the horror they’re in, and I just ache for them. Grief, sorrow, disappointment, pain, in the end, all of that is manageable. It’s just the unknown, when there’s that piece that’s missing and you’re left floating not knowing what happened.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe