Roberta Marie FERGUSON Missing Person Case

Roberta Marie

FERGUSON

56

18

65 inches

65 inches

110 lbs

110 lbs

Indigenous

Female

On a summer evening, August 24, 1988, a 19-year-old Indigenous woman named Roberta Marie Ferguson made the decision to leave a camping trip at Sunnyside Campground on Cultus Lake, British Columbia. She had been at the campground, located about an hour east of Surrey, with friends and her niece to celebrate the end of a work-study program. Not feeling well due to a fever, she wanted to go home to Surrey where she was living with her older sister, Verl. Around 8 p.m., Roberta, a member of the Dunvegan Beaver band, left the campsite on foot, intending to either hitchhike or take a bus. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a black shirt with a navy blue tank top, stretchy black pants rolled up to her knees, and dirty white running shoes. She was also wearing distinctive octagon-shaped sunglasses and carrying an army-green backpack. Roberta never arrived at her sister's home in Surrey. When her family tried to report her missing, they were initially told by the RCMP to wait, as she was an adult. This delay prompted her loved ones to begin their own search, creating and distributing missing person posters and combing the area around Cultus Lake. There was a reported sighting of a young woman matching Roberta’s description walking near the intersection of Vedder Mountain and Cultus Lake roads. A witness stated they saw a man with blond or light brown hair in a red sports car pull over, and the girl appeared to back away from the vehicle as if she were scared. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance. Over the years, the investigation into Roberta's disappearance has encountered several challenging and ultimately unresolved leads. In the early 2000s, convicted killer Terry Arnold allegedly claimed to have been the last person with her and led police to a site where he said he had left her body, but a search turned up nothing. He later took his own life after being mistakenly released from custody, leaving a note that recanted his confessions. Roberta's family also endured the painful process of submitting DNA to see if she was among the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton, but no match was found. Described by her sister as a quiet and good kid who didn't drink or use drugs, Roberta's case remains an open and unsolved endangered missing person file with the Chilliwack RCMP. Her family has been left waiting for decades, holding onto hope for closure in the tragic and perplexing vanishing of a young woman who simply wanted to go home.

Glasses thick Luggage Green, knapsack Shirt Blue, navy blue tank top Shoes White, runners; dirty

Aug 24, 1988

Chilliwack

British Columbia

Fraser Valley RCMP Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment;

British Columbia

604-792-4611

604-792-4611

Law Enforcement

1988-14345

Fraser Valley RCMP Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment;

Black

Brown

Brown

Hair details: Shoulder

No