Alberta man charged with public mischief over fake disappearance

Lethbridge Police are now treating the disappearance of Matthew Robillard, who was found in Calgary two days after he was reported missing from his job in Picture Butte, as a public mischief investigation.

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. - Police in southern Alberta have charged a man with public mischief after it was learned that his disappearance was a hoax.

Matthew Aaron Robillard's relatives called police when the 25-year-old Lethbridge man failed to show up for work Jan. 31 at a Scotiabank in nearby Picture Butte.

His car was later discovered with a smashed window in an industrial area near the Calgary airport. His keys, wallet and phone, along with a pack of cigarettes, had been left in the car. Robillard, who is a Morman, doesn't smoke.

Investigators found Robillard, a married father of a six-month-old baby, a few days later at a Calgary hotel.

"This was a ruse that spanned multiple jurisdictions and diverted valuable police resources away from real victims and actual crimes,” Ian Sanderson, acting inspector for the Lethbridge police criminal investigation division, said Tuesday in a news release.

"It’s a concern to us that someone would take these steps and cause police to continue an investigation when no crime had occurred."

A followup investigation by the Lethbridge and Calgary police services determined Robillard was not the victim of a crime.

Police allege he planned his disappearance and took deliberate steps, including breaking his own vehicle window and causing injuries to himself, to make it appear as though he had been abducted.

Investigators believe Robillard’s disappearance was precipitated by a significant financial loss and allege the abduction was staged to make it appear as though he had been blackmailed to account for the loss.

Robillard was released on a recognizance and is scheduled to appear in court April 8.

Robillard is not the first person from Lethbridge to be involved in a strange disappearance. A decade ago, a city alderwoman, Dar Heatherington, made international headlines for faking her disappearance.

The married mother vanished while in Montana on city business and was found three days later in Las Vegas. She claimed she had been drugged and abducted, but later recanted the story and was convicted of public mischief.

She was also convicted of inventing a stalker. Following a feud with her colleagues about keeping her job, she resigned from city council.