On the night of June 29th, 2002, 21-year-old Lisa Marie Young went out to celebrate her friend’s birthday. After visiting a nightclub in her hometown of Nanaimo, Canada, Lisa attended two house parties before accepting a ride from a man she had met just a couple of hours ago.
Image 1
More than two decades later, no one knows what happened to this vibrant young woman. Although law enforcement has identified their person of interest, no arrests have been made so far.
Lisa’s loved ones have never given up on bringing her home and continue to search for the truth to this day.
Background
Lisa Marie Young was born on May 5th, 1981, in Nanaimo, Canada, to parents Don and Joanne. Her mother is a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation from the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Lisa was the eldest of three children and was very protective of her brothers, Brian and Robin.
Lisa was friendly, outgoing, and very independent. She loved being active and enjoyed waterskiing, swimming, and rollerblading along the waterfront.
Her passion for sports fueled Lisa’s long-term goal of becoming a television sports commentator. Additionally, Lisa was a vegetarian and made sure to eat healthy.
In June 2002, Lisa was living next door to her parents in a Barons Road apartment building. At that time, she had a roommate, but Lisa longed for independence.
She eventually found a place of her own in the northern part of Nanaimo and was in the process of moving there. Also, Lisa was set to start a new job at a call center on July 2nd, and was looking forward to these major life changes.
The disappearance
On June 29th, 2002, Lisa’s friend Dallas Hulley was celebrating his birthday, coinciding with the Canada Day long weekend. Lisa wanted to go out even though she had plans with her dad for the following morning. Don agreed to help his daughter pack for the move, and she needed to be up early.
Lisa left her apartment just after 11:00 PM and headed to the nightclub called Jungle, located downtown on Skinner Street. According to her friends, the club was packed and everyone was having a great time.
The club closed at 2:00 AM, and Lisa’s friends remained outside, just chatting and trying to figure out where to go next. Around this time, a man in his twenties approached the group and began talking to them as they discussed heading to a house party.
The man seemed nice and polite, so when he offered to drive them to the party, no one objected.
Everyone was surprised to see his car, which was an older model Jaguar XJ40. It was an unusual vehicle for North America, let alone Vancouver Island, so the car immediately stood out.
Lisa and her friends hopped in, and the man drove them to Harewood. It wasn’t long before the group started talking about going to the second house party, this time in Cathers Lake. Once again, the man with the Jaguar agreed to drive them there.
Around 3:00 AM, Lisa mentioned that she was hungry, but since she was a vegetarian, her food options were a bit limited. The man suggested they look for a restaurant that was open at that time of night and promised to drive her home afterward.
Dallas wanted to stay at the party, so Lisa left with the man around 3:30 AM on June 30th, 2002. An hour later, Lisa called Dallas to let him know that the Jaguar guy hadn’t taken her to a restaurant to grab something to eat.
Instead, he drove to another party and refused to take her home. According to Dallas, Lisa said they were on Bowen Road, and she didn’t sound scared. The cell phone data will later show that Lisa’s phone was last active in the area of Departure Bay.
In the morning, Joanne and Don tried reaching out to Lisa because they had agreed to help her pack, but she wasn’t picking up. The two assumed she had stayed at a friend’s place since she had gone out late last night.
Image 2
But on July 1st, Lisa’s parents started to worry. Lisa’s roommate came by looking for her, stating that she hadn’t returned home from her night out.
Joanne and Don began calling Lisa’s friends, trying to locate her, but no one knew where she was. When they failed to find Lisa, the two called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but were advised to wait in case their daughter showed up.
Joanne and Don were persistent, and an officer arrived that evening to take their statement. The officer told them to wait for five days and then contact him if Lisa was still missing.
The investigation
When Lisa failed to return home almost one week later, the Serious Crime Unit took over the case. In the meantime, Joanne and Don reached out to local media, and Lisa’s disappearance was covered by the Nanaimo Daily News on July 4th.
On the same day, the RCMP learned that Lisa got into a dark red Jaguar on the night of her disappearance, and they identified the driver as Christopher William Adair two weeks later.
He was brought in for questioning, and investigators invited Joanne Young to attend the interview, hoping her presence would prompt Christopher to confess to what he did to her daughter.
However, the only thing Christopher said to Joanne was: “I can’t, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to disrespect your family.” Since the RCMP had no evidence that Christopher was directly involved in Lisa’s disappearance, they released him.
As investigators tried to track down the Jaguar Christopher was driving when Lisa disappeared, they found out it was actually registered to his grandmother, Geraldine Adair. She had already sold the car, which raised suspicion right away.
The RCMP managed to locate the new owners, who agreed to a forensic investigation of the vehicle. Unfortunately, this didn’t yield any new evidence as the Jaguar had been steam cleaned before the sale, suggesting that someone was trying to get rid of the potential evidence.
During this time, Lisa’s family was doing their own investigation, in hopes of locating the missing young woman. Lisa’s grandfather mobilized the Tribal Search & Rescue, and volunteers searched multiple locations on Vancouver Island, but they found no trace of Lisa.
Thousands of missing person posters were distributed across Vancouver Island in the early days of the investigation, thanks to Don’s employer.
Even though the Young family raised approximately $8,500 as a reward for information, the tips that came in led nowhere. And so, years went by without any progress in the case. Still, Vancouver Island never forgot about Lisa Marie Young.
Who is Christopher Adair?
The RCMP’s theory from the very beginning was that Christopher Adair was somehow responsible for Lisa’s disappearance. But his status as a person of interest never changed due to the lack of evidence.
In 2002, Christopher was a young man in his mid-twenties who already had several encounters with the law.
Before June 2002, he had been found guilty of unauthorized use of credit card data in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2000, and theft, fraud, and physical assault in Kamloops, British Columbia, in 2001.
However, Christopher was from a wealthy and influential family from Vancouver Island, and his grandmother was always there to help him out. She even threatened to sue the RCMP if they continued to suggest her grandson was involved in Lisa’s disappearance.
Following the police questioning in July 2002, Christopher moved away from Vancouver Island. He was charged with assaulting a police officer in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, in August 2002. After that, rumors started circulating that he had relocated to Japan or the Philippines.
In 2024, Laura Palmer, a journalist behind the Island Crime podcast, discovered that he had been living in Fethiye, Turkey, since 2017. His current whereabouts are unknown.
The criticism
Lisa’s family was openly critical of the RCMP and the way they handled the investigation into her disappearance.
Besides telling them to wait for three days before reporting Lisa, Joanne recalled deliberately leaving out the fact that her daughter was Indigenous, fearing the police wouldn’t take her case seriously.
Even though the RCMP received more than a dozen tips in the first days of the investigation, they didn’t conduct a ground search until September 18th, 2002. By November of that year, the RCMP publicly stated they didn’t have enough manpower for a second ground search.
In October 2020, the mishandling of Lisa’s case was discussed during a House of Commons debate in Ottawa. The revelations about ignored leads, the prime suspect, and the mishandling of potential DNA evidence shocked everyone present.
In June 2021, the RCMP issued a public statement regarding Lisa’s case, saying they couldn’t share the new developments because it remained an active investigation. They assured the public that they are still searching for Lisa and hoped to solve the case soon.
The aftermath
Lisa’s mother, Joanne, passed away on June 21st, 2017, after years of struggling with various illnesses. Her family believes Joanne’s health was severely affected by Lisa’s disappearance.
Dallas Hulley, the last person to speak with Lisa, died on March 25th, 2018, when he was struck by a car on British Columbia Highway 19A.
Every year on June 20th, Lisa’s family and friends gather for an event called “Walk for Lisa”. They begin their march at the Nanaimo RCMP Detachment and walk through the downtown area.
Sources
https://globalnews.ca/news/9792686/21-years-lisa-marie-young-vanished/
https://www.ucfiles.com/Files/1055.php
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lisa-marie-young-signs-stolen-1.6817465
Leave a comment