David Andrew Goetz was 22 years old when he was last seen on August 23, 1992, in the Owen Sound area of Ontario. Goetz, a Caucasian man, disappeared during what began as a canoe outing along the shoreline northwest of Owen Sound. He was accompanied by Lucas Zenger, and the two men traveled along the shoreline of what was then Keppel Township in the direction of Big Bay.
The available missing-person record does not describe anything unusual occurring before they set out, leaving the canoe trip itself as the central event in the circumstances surrounding Goetz’s disappearance.
At the time he vanished, Goetz was approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 165 pounds. He had blond hair that was described as shoulder length. He was reportedly wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and white synthetic sneakers in size 10. Publicly available case information provides no additional identifying features, personal effects, or other physical details that might further distinguish him. These descriptions became particularly important after the outing because Goetz himself was not located with the canoe.
Goetz and Zenger's route took them along a stretch of shoreline leading toward Big Bay. The geography of the area places Big Bay between Cape Commodore and Cameron Point on Georgian Bay, with the community historically known as North Keppel situated along its shores. At some point after Goetz and Zenger traveled into this area, the canoe associated with their trip was found approximately 1.5 miles off Cape Commodore. The discovery provided investigators with an important physical link to their journey, but the available record does not explain the condition of the canoe, whether anything belonging to the men remained aboard, what the water or weather conditions were when they disappeared, or precisely how investigators believed the canoe came to be offshore.
The disappearance came under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police, with the Grey County Detachment identified in the case information. Despite the recovery of the canoe, the publicly available record contains remarkably few details about the subsequent investigation. It does not identify witnesses who saw what happened on the water, describe a confirmed accident, document evidence of foul play, or provide a sequence of events explaining what happened after Goetz and Zenger began their trip. The absence of those answers has left the circumstances largely defined by three known points: Goetz was seen in the Owen Sound area, he and Zenger went canoeing along the Keppel Township shoreline toward Big Bay, and their canoe was later discovered offshore near Cape Commodore.
More than three decades after the outing, the publicly accessible information surrounding David Andrew Goetz remains limited, preserving only a brief account of a young man who left on a canoe trip and then vanished amid the waters and shoreline of Georgian Bay. No publicly available information located documents a definitive explanation for what happened to him, and the surviving case material offers no evidence establishing whether an unforeseen event on the water, environmental conditions, or some other circumstance caused his disappearance. The enduring overview of the case is therefore one of unresolved uncertainty: 22-year-old David Andrew Goetz disappeared after setting out by canoe with Lucas Zenger from the Owen Sound area on August 23, 1992, their route extended toward Big Bay along the former Keppel Township shoreline, and the canoe was subsequently found about 1.5 miles off Cape Commodore, leaving the fate of Goetz unexplained in the available public record.Last Seen: Aug 23, 1992
