Nicholas Adamson’s family hopes his loved one is found, even if only to lock him up.
“We have a broken heart and maybe we’ll never have closure,” said Jennifer Adamson, whose son Nicholas disappeared after a night out with friends at The Moose & Goose on St. Patrick’s Day.
For Adamson, the reality that he may not see his son alive again is worrying because it is not known what happened to him after he left the Thorold bar that night.
“We’re baffled, that’s all we think about every day,” Adamson said.
“I think where we might be, we’ve looked everywhere.”
About 60 people are believed to be missing in the St. Louis area. Catharines, which is high per capita, according to Please Bring Me Home, a non-profit organization based in Owen Sound, which specializes in investigating cases of missing persons and is involved. with the Adamson family to try to find Nicholas, 29.
The organization, founded in 2018, assists law enforcement by reviewing details of missing persons cases and conducting additional investigations that law enforcement agencies cannot conduct due to budgetary constraints.
Many factors contribute to the number of missing people locally, as more families continue to search for loved ones. Mental health, proximity to the U.S. border, and water bodies are some factors.
“There are some areas, across Canada, that are areas of high probability of disappearing and this can be for a variety of reasons,” said Nick Oldrieve, executive director of Please Bring Me Home.
He said that St. Catharines is an area where these factors converge contributing to disappearances.
This can also include changes in a person’s routine and a possible inability to keep track of them once they are gone.
“It’s very difficult to determine what a change in a person’s routine is,” he said.
This can lead to unexpected variations that lead to unforeseen results, including death.
Reviewing the files, Oldrieve said many of the cases his organization has investigated in the Niagara region are younger men with different lifestyles.
“There’s no real common denominator other than younger men,” he said.
“(Nothing) has proved with a reasonable amount of certainty that there would be a dirty game.”
Fear and the idea of what might have happened can sometimes affect families when they look for those people who are missing, Oldrieve said.
Adamson said police classified his son’s disappearance as a misfortune.
“To me, the misfortune seems to be that he was walking and tripped and opened his head or something. They would have found him immediately, but they didn’t find him,” Adamson said.
Adamson said the video shows him walking away from the bar, west of Sullivan Street toward Pine Street.
“If he’s in the water, then someone put him there, because how could he go in the water, (the video) doesn’t make him go down to lock 7.”
Adamson said the hardest part is not knowing where to find him or when.
“We don’t know where he is, we don’t know what happened to him, we don’t know if he suffered, it could be years before we find out, it’s very hard,” he said.
Adamson appeals to anyone who knows anything about Nicholas’ disappearance to show up.
Families of missing people seeking more help can contact Please Bring Me Home at https://pleaserbringmehome.com.
TO SHARE: