It’s been 29 years since the Jack family – members of Cheslatta Carrier Nation – mysteriously disappeared.
The family of four – Ronald and Doreen Jack, and their two children, Russell, 9, and Ryan, 4 – were last heard from during the early morning of Aug. 2, 1989.
Investigators are now looking to speak with a person who recently sent a tip about the case – by telephone and then by mail – to a third party who passed it on to the RCMP.
Police wouldn’t specify when the tip was made or the information included, stating it could compromise the investigation.
“We would like to speak to this individual in order to gain greater clarity and insight into the information that was provided,” said staff sergeant Kent MacNeill, in charge of the Prince George RCMP’s Serious Crime Section.
Cheslatta Carrier Nation Chief Corrina Leween said she was hopeful that any new information may lead to solving this case.
“It’s been difficult on the entire family not knowing what happened to their loved ones,” she told Lakes District News. “I have been in constant contact with Marlene Jack, who is the sister to Doreen Jack. She has been diligent in working with the murdered and missing women’s inquiry to keep the work up and hopefully find out were the family is and what happened to them.”
The last reported sighting of Ronald was at a pub in Price George, near the family’s home. Eyewitnesses said Ronald left the pub with a tall, Caucasian man approximately 35 to 40 years old. Later, a relative told police the man had offered Jack and Doreen jobs at his logging camp in the Cluculz Lake area.
The last known contact the pair had with family was a phone call Ronald made to his mother in Burns Lake. He’d said the family would be gone for about 10 days, but never were heard from again.
According to investigators, the couple’s home in Prince George appeared as if they had every intention of returning.
In September of 2005, Ronald’s father, Casimel Jack, also went missing from his Mollice Lake home. Although there was an extensive search of the ground and the area where Casimel went missing – involving local volunteers, search and rescue, family members and RCMP – he was never located.
Prince George RCMP corporal Craig Douglass added that the disappearance of the Jack family has greatly impacted many for nearly three decades, but none more than their family and friends.
Doreen’s sister, Marlene Jack, has kept the search for her sister alive, speaking at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Smithers last year.
READ MORE: Missing and Murdered inquiry hearings in Smithers
She has also since started a Facebook group – called Missing Jack family out of Prince George – dedicated to the investigation.
“Having information about what may have happened to the Jack family must weigh heavy on anyone with it,” said cpl. Douglass. “Please come forward and help provide some much needed answers to this mystery.”
If you have any information about what happened to the Jack family, contact the Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300, or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
If you provide information that leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward.
RELATED: Cold cases in the Burns Lake region
- With files from Ashley Wadhwani
