Disappearance of Emma Fillipoff

Emma Fillipoff (born January 6, 1986) has been missing since Nov 28, 2012, vanishing from in front of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, at the age of 26.

Disappearance

Fillipoff was last seen in the immediate vicinity of the Empress Hotel in Victoria between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm on November 28, 2012. She was observed being interviewed by Victoria police. Her red Mazda MPV '93 van was found in the Chateau Victoria parking lot with almost all her belongings in it, including her passport, library card, digital camera, clothes, a pillow, assorted ornaments, laptop, and recently borrowed library books. It is believed she used the van as storage. She spoke with Chateau Victoria staff at 7 am on the morning of her disappearance.^[1]

Timeline

Fillipoff arrived in Victoria from Perth, Ontario, in the fall of 2011. She had brief employment at the Red Fish Blue Fish seasonal seafood restaurant in Victoria’s Inner Harbour. She left the job on October 31, 2012, as the work was seasonal. She assured co-workers she would be back in the spring.^[2]

Unknown to family, Fillipoff had stayed at the Sandy Merriman House women's shelter on and off since February.^[3] On November 23, Fillipoff was captured on security video at the Victoria YMCA, entering, then leaving, then entering multiple times as if avoiding someone on the outside.^[3]

On November 26, Fillipoff phoned her mother in Ontario, asking if she could come home, and was told "of course".^[3] Unknown to Emma, her mother then flew out to Victoria, arriving at Sandy Merriman house at about 11 pm on the 28th, three hours after Emma had been last seen at the Empress Hotel.^[4]

Early on the day of November 28, Fillipoff had been captured on a 7-Eleven store video on Government Street purchasing a pre-paid cell phone.^[5] The video showed her hesitating in departing the store, seemingly checking the street outside. Thereafter, she hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to the airport; however, she soon exited the taxi for lack of adequate fare.^[3] Reportedly, she left the Sandy Merriman House women’s shelter at about 6 p.m. that day.^[6] She returned to the 7-Eleven store to buy a pre-paid credit card. Later, she was seen walking barefoot in front of the Empress Hotel. An acquaintance of hers, Dennis Quay,^[7] called 9-1-1 to say a woman was in severe distress outside the hotel.^[8]

Victoria police arrived, took Emma's name, and spent 45 minutes speaking with her. Deciding that she was not a threat to herself or anyone else, they released her; no one has reported seeing Emma since 7:45 pm that night. Later that evening, police met Fillipoff's mother at Sandy Merriman House; by midnight Emma was classified as a missing person.

Investigators explored more than 200 leads, turning up minimal information.^[9] Most evidence indicates she was planning to return home to Ottawa, but there’s no proof she ever left the city. The credit card^[10] was allegedly found on the side of the road by a stranger to the north of where Fillipoff disappeared, whom the police tracked by the purchase of cigarettes with the card.^[2] The cellphone she bought had never been activated.

Fillipoff's writings

Fillipoff wrote copious prose about her time in Victoria.^[5] None of it indicated that she was being stalked. Even though some of it indicated she was depressed, experts who appeared on The Fifth Estate said the writing did not have the hallmarks of suicide. According to Fillipoff's mother, however, the Sandy Merriman staff claimed that Emma "required both physical and medical intervention."^[4]

Unrelated charges against mother and brother

In March 2016, Fillipoff's mother and brother were charged with money laundering, as well as drug and weapons offenses, after an OPP investigation. Shelley Fillipoff insisted the charges had nothing to do with the disappearance of Emma, saying "the one has nothing to do with the other."^[11]

In November 2016, all charges were dropped against Shelley Fillipoff, clearing her of any involvement.^[12]

Possible leads

The Campbell River Courier-Islander newspaper reported in May 2014 that in Gastown, Vancouver, business owners Joel and Lori Sellen witnessed a man in their store throwing out a $25,000 missing persons reward poster for Fillipoff. The pair reported that the man said, "It’s one of those missing persons posters, except she’s not missing, she’s my girlfriend and she ran away ‘cause she hates her parents." The owners immediately called the police. Although security video captured an image of the man, he has yet to be identified.^[13]

Media coverage

In addition to print coverage, in 2013, Fillipoff's disappearance was the subject of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television program, The Fifth Estate.^[3]

See also

• People who disappeared in 2012
• Missing person
• Missing white woman syndrome

References

External links

• Find Emma Fillipoff's facebook page
• Detailed timeline of last sightings