Search for Eli Wood continues more than five months after disappearance

More than five months after Eli Wood disappeared from Kitchener, concerned community members searched the woods. CTV’s Colton Wiens reports.

A group of concerned citizens continued their search for Eli Wood on Friday, more than five months after the 25-year-old was last seen in Kitchener.

Wood was last seen on Oct. 18, 2025. The next morning, flames engulfed Wood’s home on Major Street.

The Waterloo Regional Police Service have not said what caused the fire, but arson and foul play could be involved.

On Friday, a group searched near the Woodside National Historic Site, an area close to where Wood had been living.

“We’re just hoping to take a look. The snow has been bad, so this is kind of the first time since the snow melted that we’ve looked.” Jamie Powell, an organizer, said. “Just looking for any evidence that Eli has been here. Anything that can help in this case at all.”

Powell said there was no specific reason why they decided to search that area.

“We don’t have any information to tell us that Eli was here specifically, but, just – you have to start somewhere.”

Powell didn’t know Wood personally before the disappearance, but said it only felt right to help search for a fellow student.

“I’m a student at [Wilfrid Laurier University], so I’ve seen posters, and obviously Eli was a member of that community. It just feels like we should kind of be the ones looking for our fellow student,” Powell said.

The group marked different parts of the area as they searched, and said they plan to keep looking for answers.

“Keep an eye out for more searches. I think there will definitely be more,” Powell said. “We could use all the help we can get, because there’s a lot of ground to cover in Kitchener.”