Thursday marks the two-year anniversary of the disappearance of Jed Ouillette. Ouillette, a Kitchener resident, was last seen at his home on Southwood Drive on Sept. 8, 2014. Two days later – after discovering that Ouillette wasn’t home and his dogs hadn’t been given food or water for two days – family members contacted police to report him missing. “One day he was there, and the next day he wasn’t,” says his sister, Donna Morton. “Nobody had seen him. Nobody had heard from him.” Waterloo Regional Police say they’re still “actively investigating” the 52-year-old’s disappearance – but with little information to go on, they’re not ruling anything out. “At this point, the investigation is at somewhat of a standstill,” says Det. Const. Duane Gingerich “We’re just hoping that someone out there may have some information that would be helpful to us.” Morton describes her brother as a “fun guy to be around” – someone who didn’t like going out to bars, but could play the drums in his garage for hours, inviting friends to accompany him on other instruments. He also loved his dogs, and would take them virtually everywhere he went. In May 2015, police searched Lakeside Park – a spot Ouillette was known to frequent with his dogs. They found clothing in the park similar to what Ouillette was known to wear, but can’t conclusively say that any of the items belonged to him. This past spring, a police dive team was brought in to search the park’s lake. They didn’t turn up anything that shed light on Ouillette’s whereabouts. Ouillette wasn’t suffering from any known medical issues. Morton says her brother was “going through some hard times” relating to losing his house, but generally “seemed OK.” “Every time I talked to him, he seemed fine,” she says. One thing that police say could help their investigation is better access to some of Ouillette’s personal records. Morton says one of the first things she asked police about was her brother’s bank records, and whether they could be accessed to determine whether he was still withdrawing money. It was indeed possible – but only after police applied for and were granted a warrant. “If we can’t prove that a criminal act has occurred, then we don’t have the (legal means) to obtain health records or banking information on a person,” Gingerich says. Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife is spearheading a bill at Queen’s Park which would speed up the process for police to get that sort of information. It received all-party support that fall, but Fife says it seems to have “stalled” in the legislature since then. “It’s really a missed opportunity, because this government could solve this issue,” she says. Morton and other family members still hope Ouillette will one day return to them, safe and sound. For them, it seems unbelievable that there isn’t anyone out there who knows what happened to him in 2014. “Nobody knows anything. Nobody knows where he went,” she says. “We’re still hoping and praying that he comes home.” With reporting by Nicole Lampa
