The Lucknow Sentinel, 1988-07-13, Page 140C PER COPYI
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BLUE
RIBBON
AWARD
1988
(PUBLISHED IN LUCKNOW ONTARIO
Wednesday, July 13,1988
Massive manhunt is futile
Lois Hanna still missing after 10 days
By MARIE WILSON
The whereabouts of a young Kincardine
woman reported missing since July 4 re-
mains a bizarre mystery despite a massive
manhunt that included a block byblock,
house by house search of the area plus the
use of four planes, an O.P.P. helicopter, a
dive team, a canine unit, a special Iden-
tification team from Mount Forest, a Toron-
to psychic, a Toronto private investigator
and the offer of a $10,000 reward.
Twenty -five-year-old Lois Marie Hanna
has been missing since Monday morning
(July 4) when she failed to report for work
at MacG's clothing store in Kincardine.
Described as a "creature of habit" by life-
long friend Caryn Nicolson, family and
friends felt such behaviour unusual and
after an initial search of her home where
they discovered her keys and purse contain-
ing all her I.D., including credit cards, they
became concerned enough to call the police.
The T.V. in the house was left on as were
various lights and half a cup of tea was
found on the counter. All of the doors to the
house were locked and an employee from
MacG's who initially entered the house Mon-
day morning in a bid to find Lois did so
through a bathroom window. Lois' car was
in her driveway with half a tank of gas still
in it. It appears herbed wasn't slept in.
The only items of missing clothing which
can be accounted for are a pink -peachy
nightgown and housecoat.
Cousin Susy Gallaher who commonly
swapped clothes with Lois said she can't
find anything else missing.
Susy also commented it would have been
common behaviour for Lois to come home,
change into her nightwear(the reported
nightgown and housecoat were favourites),
Lois Hanna
make herself a cup of tea and relax in front
of the television before retiring for the night.
However, it would have been totally out of
character for her to have left the house
without her purse and make-up.
According to her brother David, "Lois
would never ever have left the house without
her purse. Even if she heard mom was in an
accident, she would have grabbed a track
suit and a purse before going. To leave
without anything would be very bizarre
behaviour for her," he said.
Lois was last seen at a dance in Lucknow
on Sunday evening (July 3) and is reported
to have left sometime between 10:30 and
11:30 p.m.
It is thought she drove home alone to the
Nelson Street resi¢ence where whe resides
by herself and disappeared sometime
through the night.
Susy said the clothes Lois wore to the
dance were found in her bedroom so it ap-
pears she arrived home and at least
changed.
A preliminary search for Lois was in-
stigated almost immediately by the family,
but town police didn't actually get involved
in the search until 24 hours after the girl was
reported missing.
According to Acting Deputy Chief Bob
Chandler, it takes 24 hours for an adult to be
classed as missing from the time a report is
filed.
Even Tuesday aftenoon( July 5)after the.
OPP became involved with their helicopter
and two spotters, Mr. Chandler said police
still weren't prepared to get involved in a
search because they had no reason to
suspect foul play and no leads to give them
an indication as to where they should be
searching.
However the girl's description was
distributed Canada -wide over the police
CPIC(Canadian Police Information
. Computer) system.
Her home used for headquarters
A physical search for the girl was left up
to the family and with the help of about 40
friends, they instigated sporadic searches
throughout the area using Lois' Nelson
Street home as a headquarters for the
search.
Meanwhile Lois' mother Olive who lives
at Silver Lake(Lois' father passed away in
March)manned the phone lines there and
friends and family rallied round to offer
support.
Olive's brother Loyd came from Bellwood
Lake while her two sisters, Jean from
Mount Albert and Helen from Winnipeg also
came to be with her. Lois' four brothers:
David from Lucknow, Lloyd from Silver
Lake, John from Winnipeg and Jim from St.
Catherines are also taking part in the search
as well as offering support to their mother.
In an interview with The News Monday
morning(July 11), Olive's sister Jean
described the family as being in a state of
"numbness."
Family is grasping at straws
"We just can't imagine that this could
happen. Where is she. This sort of thing
doesn't happen to our family. It's something
you read about in the newspaper that hap-
pened somewhere else—not here. We are at
the point where we are grasping at straws,
any piece. of information because we have
no ideas, no clues...nothing to go on," she
said, "however we aren't giving up hope
that she'll be found."
Echoing her aunt's words, cousin Susy
Gallaher said she's convinced "Lois is com-
ing home."
Massive block by block search
Although the first few days after Lois'
disappearance were spent in sporadic sear-
ches, by Wednesday there was evidence of a
more detailed investigation.
Volunteers according to brother David did
a thorough block by block search of the town
and outlying areas where everyone was in
contact with everyone else.
Four volunteers took planes up and circl-
ed the area (two of the volunteers owned
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Firing up before the competition, a crew checks out their machine Sunday at Lucknow's
annual tractor pull. It was the seventh stop on the 1988 Copenhagen Skoal Great Lakes
Series Tractor Pull circult. ( photo by Bill Henry)
Lucknow has million dollar
opportunity says Paul McKessock
A dozen members of the Lucknow
Business Association gathered in the base-
ment of the Town Hall last Wednesday
evening to hear the suggestions of Paul
McKessock, Executive Director of the
Grey -Bruce Tourist Association.
During the informal meeting, Mr.
McKessock presented a number of sugges-
tions as to how the Village of Lucknow
could, and should, promote itself as a
tourist destination.
"My role with the Grey -Bruce' Tourist
Association," said the guest speaker, "is
to encourage groups such as this to get in-
volved in promoting tourism. The Business
Association here in Lucknow shouldn't be
intimidated by tourism. You should invite
it, promote it and take advantage of the
traffic it creates.''
Mr. McKessock added, almost as a
challenge to those in attendance, that
Lucknow "could do a million dollars in
tourist business within ten years...if it's
promoted and encouraged".
The Grey -Bruce organization
The Grey -Bruce Tourist Association is a
group funded by the memberships paid by
the municipal councils, additional dollars
generated by advertising sold in the
various brochures produced by the
organization, and through grants received
at the County level, explained McKessock.
"We are not a big, wealthy, powerful
organization," he said. "We try to work at
the chamber of commerce level within the
various communities we represent."
Lucknow is considered part of Saugeen
Country, which is a distinct tourist area
"similar to the Bruce Peninsula and the
Huron Shoreline areas".
McKessock, after briefly explaining the
structure of the Tourist Association, in-
vited the local Business Association to
send a representative to "three or four of
our open meetings,".
"You'll see that there are a number of
volunteer groups working closely with the
Grey -Bruce Tourist Association," said the
energetic McKessock. "It's a very comfor-
table arrangement based on steady
growth."
What's to be done
Following a number of questions on how
Lucknow could get more involved
tourism, Mr. McKessock offered some
suggestions. He explained the concept of
Bed and Breakfast accomodation, and
noted that things like a town operated
campground, promotion of local farm
vacations and river walks and the develop-
ment of a local tourist irformation booth
are good places to start.
"Of the hundreds of c: s each week that
travel through Luckno during the sum-
mer months," said Mr. McKessock, "all
you have to do is get a few used to
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