The Barrie police chief, the lead investigator and a family member are expected to speak at a news conference Thursday
Barrie Police Chief Rich Johnston will make a “significant announcement” tomorrow regarding an ongoing investigation into a missing person believed to be 26-year-old Autumn Shaganash, who was reported missing to metropolitan police on June 12, 2023 .
In a news release sent out Wednesday afternoon, police did not mention Shaganash by name, but the description of the victim's age and the date of the missing person's call to police match those of Autumn Shaganash.
News media were invited to visit the Barrie-Simcoe Emergency Services Campus on Fairview Road on February 8 at 11 a.m. Johnston, the lead investigator in the case and a family member of the missing person are expected to speak at that time.
After seven months of mystery surrounding Shaganash's disappearance after she left a Barrie home in June 2023, her family hired a private investigator to work independently of local police.
Shaganash, who was 26 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen leaving home in the Allandale neighborhood near Burton Avenue and Frank's Way on the night of June 9, 2023. She was last seen wearing a black hoodie and shorts, Puma sandals and carrying a black and brown handbag.
A missing persons investigation was launched on June 12 when local police were informed of her disappearance.
At the time, Barrie Police Communications Coordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday that one of Shaganash's family members received a text message from her on June 10, but indicated she was no longer available after that.
Leon said it appears from investigative resources available to police that Shaganash had “vanished into thin air,” adding that her social media activity was suspended following her disappearance.
Investigators “pinged her cell phone” – a method of determining a cell phone's estimated current location using GPS data or using cell tower triangulation – and she was last pinged in the area of Kozlov Street, where she was last seen in Sunnidale Park .
Sunnidale Park has been searched several times by police drones and dog search teams since her disappearance, but to no avail.
Despite everything, Shaganash's sister Lili-Anne Moore said in a recent interview that she and her family remain confident that her sister will one day return safely to them.
“We really miss her. She was like a second mother to my girls. She loved them very much and would never run away from us. She was always in contact with her family (and when she went out she would text us,” Moore said. “This is very out of character. Something happened and someone has her. I just hope she is found safe and alive. “
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