On the night of June 29, 2002, 21-year-old Lisa Marie Young left her parents' home in Nanaimo, British Columbia, for a night out to celebrate a friend's birthday. This was the last time her family would see her. Lisa, an Indigenous woman of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, was at an exciting point in her life, preparing to move into her own apartment and start a new job. That evening, she and her friends went to a local nightclub.
After the club closed in the early hours of June 30, a man named Christopher William Adair, whom they had just met, offered them a ride in his red Jaguar to a house party. The group later went to a second party in the Cathers Lake area. Lisa, a vegetarian, was hungry and couldn't find anything to eat at the party, so Adair offered to drive her to a sandwich shop. She left with him, telling her friends she would find her own way back. It was the last time they saw her.
The hours that followed her departure from the party are known only through her final, distressing communications with her friend, Dallas Hulley. At approximately 4:30 a.m., Lisa called Hulley, stating that Adair hadn't taken her to get food and would not bring her back. She told Hulley they were parked in a driveway on Bowen Road and that she was getting angry. Shortly after, she sent a text message to Hulley that read, "come get me, they won't let me leave." Her cell phone's last signal was traced to the Departure Bay area of Nanaimo. When Lisa didn't return home and couldn't be reached, her concerned parents contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Initially, they were told to wait, but an officer later visited their home to begin a report.
In the more than two decades since Lisa Marie Young vanished, her case has been investigated as a homicide, with police believing she met with foul play. No one has ever been charged in her disappearance, and her body has never been found. Christopher Adair, the man last seen with Lisa, has been identified by police as a person of interest but has never faced charges in connection to the case. He was questioned by police in the months following her disappearance. Lisa's mother had a brief, police-facilitated meeting with him, during which he reportedly apologized but said he couldn't tell her where Lisa was. Over the years, thousands of documents have been collected, and hundreds of witnesses have been interviewed. Despite numerous searches, some involving ground-penetrating radar, Lisa's remains have not been located. The case remains an open and active investigation, a painful and unresolved chapter for her family, her First Nation, and the Nanaimo community, who continue to hold annual vigils and marches, keeping her memory alive and relentlessly seeking justice.Last Seen: Jun 30, 2002
