Friends and relatives of missing Bonnyville resident Ken Bjornstad are hoping he'll turn up, but fear is creeping in that he may not be coming home.
The 50-year-old Bjornstad was reported missing on Saturday, April 3, but was last seen March 31 at around 9 p.m. at the Esso station on Highway 28 across from Ducharme Motors. While Bjornstad drove his truck to the service station – apparently in search of cigarettes – he left it there, started walking in a confused state, and hasn't been heard from or seen since.
His sister, Gale Vigfusson, was trying to maintain hope on Monday that Bjornstad will be found, but given the severe weather that has hit the area, and no sightings of her brother, staying positive has been tough.
“There's always the thread of hope,” she said from her home in Campbell River, B.C.
“There always has to be, but realistically, if you use your head instead of your heart, it's very difficult to think that the result is going to be anything other than…” she said, unable to finish her sentence.
Search efforts have proved unsuccessful to date, and it's less likely future search efforts will turn up traces of Bjornstad since snow covered the ground Friday, only a day after Mounties formerly activated civilian searchers from Bonnyville Search & Rescue to look for Bjornstad.
RCMP are now asking local residents to check their sheds, out buildings and inactive vehicles for signs of Bjornstad. Anyone with information is asked to call 780-826-3358.
Charlene Hollett said she reported Bjornstad missing April 3 when he failed to return to his vehicle at the gas station and couldn't be found at home. Charlene and her husband Trevor have been friends with Bjornstad for years. They and several of Bjornstad's former co-workers began searching for him April 3. After notifying police, Charlene also started distributing missing person posters with Bjornstad's picture on to businesses around Bonnyville.
While Bjornstad has been battling alcoholism in the past several months — he has been in and out of hospital twice –– Charlene said it's unlike him to just disappear, especially under such strange circumstances.
“I went to his house. The doors were unlocked. The windows were open. The fan was on. Lights (were) on. Heat on. Radio on. It was like he left for five minutes,” Charlene said last week.
Charlene used to clean house and shop for Bjornstad, a bachelor, but backed away from the work last year because of her friend's persistent drinking. After a stint in rehab, he was better for a while, she said, but had fallen off the wagon again recently. He's not considered to be in good health.
She last talked to Bjornstad back in February when his drinking seemed under control.
“He was very lucid, very calm, but he wasn't back to his drinking at that point,” she said.
Bjornstad is mostly a loner. According to Charlene, he enjoys his smokes, and is a voracious daily newspaper reader.
“He would read cover to cover, every word,” she said. That sentiment was echoed by Vigfusson, who described her brother as a dedicated reader and a music lover as well – though he's far more of a Guns 'N Roses fan than a classic music buff.
Charlene said she heard from a clerk at the service station that Bjornstad was very confused when he stopped there.
She said she hasn't known him to disappear or hitchhike before.
That comment was also echoed by Bjornstad's sister, who said she talked to Bjornstad the Sunday prior to his disappearance, and that a brother in the Edmonton area talked to him by phone on the Tuesday before he was last seen.
“We're a large family. Every second day someone was talking to him, usually,” Vigfusson said.
While they were concerned about their brother's drinking, his siblings weren't worried Bjornstad would disappear.
“There was absolutely nothing that would have said that any of us had any cause for concern,” Vigfusson said last week.
She hasn't known her brother to hitchhike in the past, and disappearing hasn't been one of his behaviours, despite his battle with booze.
“This behaviour, this missing, that is so not typical,” she said last week.
Bonnyville Mounties issued a news release last week looking for information from the public on Bjornstad's disappearance.
He is described as being about 5'6” tall and weighing 160 pounds. He has brown wavy hair and was last seen wearing a black leather jacket and jeans.
Cpl. Steve Smith, acting Bonnyville detachment commander, said last week that the last person known to have talked to Bjornstad reported him to be confused.
A formal ground search for Bjornstad was initiated last Thursday, but shut down when the bad weather arrived.
“There's nothing to indicate any foul play at this stage,” Smith said Monday, adding that searchers searched the area as best they could prior to the snowfall. An aerial search had been planned as well, but will now wait until after the snow melts, Smith said.
Adult missing persons cases with no signs of foul play don't typically produce instant searches from authorities, in part because most people reported missing go missing by their own choice.
“Ninety per cent or more of people reported missing actually aren't missing. They just don't want to be found by their families,” Smith explained.
“If there's any sign of foul play, we would act on it immediately.”
For her part, Charlene Hollett is also sounding like someone losing hope in the wake of the spring blizzard and no sightings of Bjornstad.
“It's the not knowing that's getting to everybody,” she said.
