The wife of a missing man in the Cowichan Valley says she’s still holding onto hope and is making an emotional plea for help.
It’s been nearly two weeks since Nicholas Marion went missing in the Youbou area of Lake Cowichan on July 1.
He and his wife, Dory Marion, were in town for a music festival.
Dory says Nicholas wasn’t quite acting like himself. His mother had recently died, and he didn’t want to socialize.
He went for a walk on the morning of June 30, leaving his friend’s home Youbou Road.
Nicholas was spotted four more times that same day in a number of locations, and was last seen the next day on July 1 at the Maple Grove campsite sitting on a beach.
On July 2, a full search and rescue effort was launched, but in the days that followed there were no signs of Nicholas, who is not familiar with the area or terrain.
“It’s very hard to not go into dark places, but we’re trying to stay very optimistic,” Dory told CHEK News on Friday.
Cowichan Search and Rescue called off the search on July 6, but family and volunteers are still searching every day, worried about his well-being and mental state.
They hope more people will volunteer to help with the search this weekend.
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Nicholas Marion is pictured. (Submitted)
“They’re really urging us to try and put together a larger team to do grid searching rather than just going trail walking and driving around,” said Dory on Friday.
“He’s not going to be seen on the road. It’s been 12 days, you know, potentially without food,” she said. “We’re very desperate right now, it’s incredibly overwhelming. I miss my husband, it’s a very scary situation.”
Any volunteers that want to help with the search are asked to visit the Nicholas Marion – Search and Info Facebook page and fill out a form of where you’re searching so volunteers don’t double up on the same area, and can share information on where they’ve already checked.
With files from CHEK’s Paul Haysom
CHEK News
