Missing woman’s daughter wants closure

June was a 34-years-old nurse at the Victoria Hospital when she went missing in 1979. She was a single mother, having gone through a divorce with Bonnie's father and had two daughters including Bonnie, and a son.

June quit her job a few weeks before disappearance because she had a boyfriend in Winnipeg and planned to move the family there.

The last time Bonnie saw her mother, she and her boyfriend had driven June to what was then known as the Marlboro Hotel.

“She leaned into the window and said, 'If I'm not home tonight, I'll be home Sunday,'” Bonnie said.

This was confusing, said Bonnie, because her mom said she was going fishing and Bonnie knew June didn’t like activities like that.

“(She) hadn't even been around a lake since we were little kids. I said that to my boyfriend, that I found that very strange and she never came home,” Bonnie said.

By the Tuesday after her mother was to arrive home, Bonnie became worried and phoned her father, then the police.

“(I felt) afraid, abandoned,” Bonnie said.

Those feelings have never died throughout the years.

She's been in constant contact with police about their investigation.

“I mean, you put it in the back of your mind for a while. And then things like this come up, and there are nightmares and weird thoughts, because you start thinking what could have happened. Horrible ways things could have happened,” said Bonnie.

“I mean, there's never been a resolution to anything. How do you deal with just … gone?”

Earlier this year on Nov. 4 this year, the Prince Albert Police Service`s Historical Case Unit searched an empty field north of Prince Albert near Little Red River Park looking for clues into June's disappearance in what were once the basements of now-demolished homes.

The area was searched before said Staff Sgt. Tim Settee, with the Prince Albert Police Services Criminal Investigation Division.

“In 1979 there used to be a couple of residences on this location — a couple of houses, a couple of out-buildings,” he said. Settee said something in the file that led them back to the location.

At that time, only a ground search was conducted, but this time they dug deeper. Const. Susan Snell, who heads up the Historical Case Unit, explained they were digging out the basement this time.

One of the suspects in the case used to live there, she said. The home had a basement and it was something the police had not explored in the past.

Const. Snell said the man who lived there was on day parole and was assisting at the Victoria Hospital. He was questioned by investigators at the time and admitted to going for a drink that night with June.

While officers weren't able to find anything, police say there is another area they want to search. However, they will have to wait until the weather turns warmer to do so.

Const. Snell said there are anywhere from six to 12 suspects.

She said she encourages anyone who saw June Johnson that night to contact police, even if they had spoken to them when June first disappeared.
rpilon@panow.com

by Ryan Pilon

Missing woman’s daughter wants closure

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