As more days go by with no sign of Jeffrey Boucher, family members say they’re starting to prepare for the possibility that they may never see the 52-year-old again.
“We thought by now we would know, one way or another,” Mary Boucher, his mother, tells CTV News.
“We know at this point, it could maybe be bad news and we’re trying to prepare for it.”
Boucher, who was last seen Jan. 13, was born and raised in Kitchener.
It is believed he left his Whitby home Jan. 13 for his routine morning run, but he never returned home and didn’t report for work that morning at Bowmanville High School, where he teaches science.
The next day, police began an extensive search that lasted through the weekend, only being scaled back Monday after police said they had no evidence pointing them toward a next direction.
Mary Boucher says she understands why police have had to move their resources elsewhere.
“They’ve gone over most of the area twice. There’s no clue at all where he is,” she says.
Police have said investigators are working with four possible theories, although no evidence supports any of them as anything more than theories.
Those theories include purposefully leaving his home and family, suicide, being hit by a car and removed from the scene by the driver, and falling while running.
Mary Boucher says a hit-and-run would be the “worst scenario”, but family members would rather know what happened her son than continue not to know.
“If he’s around, we want to hear from him,” she says.
Boucher also made an uncharacteristic disappearance from his home the night before he was last seen, returning home after he would normally be asleep.
