Twenty-four years after her disappearance, the pain has not diminished for the family of Lisa Marie Young – although the continued showing of support from the Nanaimo community has sustained a hope that her loved ones will one day get answers.
The 21-year-old woman has been missing since the early hours of June 30, 2002, when she was out celebrating with friends in Nanaimo. What was once a missing person case is now considered by police to be a homicide investigation, as no signs have surfaced of Young’s whereabouts.
An annual event has been held in Nanaimo since the young Tla-o-qui-aht woman’s disappearance, most recently on June 28 in Maffeo Sutton Park. A cool breeze blew in from the ocean for the crowd gathered in the park on Sunday, where Tla-o-qui-aht elder Barney Williams spoke on behalf of the family.
“I know the sadness will never go away. We do our best day by day in the hope that we’ll hear something,” said Williams, thanking those in attendance for their ongoing support. “It gives us hope, it brings us some joy to see so many people.”
Born and raised in Nanaimo, during the event it was mentioned that Maffeo Sutton Park was once a place where Young rollerbladed and met with friends.
“Her personality shone bright,” said Young’s aunt Carol Frank. “She was a beautiful, independent, strong-willed woman who loved her family and friends.”
For those who knew her, the knowledge of a chilling text message remains that one of Young’s friends received from her phone at 4:30 a.m. on June 30, 2002: “Come get me, they won’t let me leave.”
Young was last seen with Christopher William Adair, whom she and her friends had just met earlier in the evening in the parking lot of a nightclub they went to. Driving a red Jaguar, Adair offered to take the group to a house party. They accepted his offer, then soon went with him to another party in Nanaimo. At approximately 3 a.m. Young left the party with Adair to get something to eat. This was the last time she was reported to be seen.
Since then, a police investigation has received hundreds of tips, interviewed hundreds of witnesses, conducted ground searches and amassed over 15,000 items related to Young’s disappearance.
Corp. Hayley Pinfold is among those currently handling the investigation with the Nanaimo RCMP. Although there have been no significant developments in the past year, she remains hopeful.
“The case is not cold, the case is still active,” said the investigator. “There are still people invested and working on the case regularly. I like to think that every time someone comes forward to us it might be that time when we get enough information to find what we need, to push this file forward.”
Since Young’s disappearance Adair has lived in Turkey for several years, including residing in the seaside resort location of Fethiye since 2017. While on the Turkish riviera it has been reported that Adair ran a consulting company specializing in immigration and residency matters. In recent years Turkish media has also reported that Adair has spent time living in the Philippines.
He has never been named by police as a suspect in the Young investigation, nor charged for anything related to the case. But court records connected to the name Christopher William Adair show a list of criminal convictions from the early 2000s, indicating that he had already been incarcerated before encountering Lisa Marie, and would serve jail time for another incident afterwards. Convictions listed include the unauthorized use of credit card data from an incident in Edmonton, Alberta from 2000, theft, fraud and assault in Kamloops B.C. from 2001, as well as assaulting a police officer in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in August 2002.
“Chris is someone whose name comes up in the community a lot for us and for our investigation,” said Corp. Pinfold. “We are kept appraised of various aspects of what’s going on for him. He is obviously a part of our investigation in which the public is aware of, but he hasn’t been charged with anything at this point, so he is not somebody who we name in relation to our investigation and we do have other suspects in our investigation as well.”
While addressing the crowd at the recent event Carol Frank spoke of the difficulty of knowing her niece was “taken by someone who has not yet been brought to justice.”
“Someone knows something, someone told someone, someone heard something,” she said.
“It’s not just about criminal justice, it’s about getting closure for the family and us investigating everything we can so that we can provide those details and context to the family,” added Pinfold.
The disappearance of Lisa Marie Young has become ingrained into Nanaimo’s social fabric, and the city formally recognizes her each June 30. Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA George Anderson said that the case serves as a message about the social obligations of men.
“Remember to ensure that we make space, we create safety for women and we be there as allies to ensure that what happened to Lisa Marie Young never happens again,” he said.
Those who have advocated for finding Lisa Marie have seen a change in the approach of the Nanaimo police department over the years. In the past a crowd gathered in front of the city’s RCMP detachment, marching in recognition of the missing woman through the streets to Maffeo Sutton Park. Now that is no longer necessary, according to event organizer Cindy Hall.
“When I first started advocating for Lisa we felt the police didn’t care about Lisa because we weren’t in contact with them,” she said, noting that over the years this has changed, as police now attend the memorial event. “The investigators attend the event every single year, they are super supportive, the file is active, police are doing searches, so we just decided we didn’t need to march this year.”
“I give thanks for the evolution of the policing system - that this used to be a protest at the RCMP station, and it is now a time that we gather together with the police,” said Nanaimo MLA Sheila Malcolmson. “It makes me think it might have been different for Lisa Marie if we had made those changes early enough to save her, to keep her safe.”
