Saying they’ve found no evidence whatsoever to lead them to Jeffrey Boucher, police are scaling back their search for the missing Kitchener native.
Officers had been searching areas around Boucher’s Whitby home for several days following the disappearance of the 52-year-old.
He was last seen Jan. 13. Family members believe he went for his routine morning run that day, and police say they’ve talked to people who saw him running away from his house.
Monday morning, police met and decided to wind down the ground search for Boucher.
“Mr. Boucher, quite simply, appears to have vanished,” Det. Sgt. Mitch Martin of Durham Regional Police told reporters.
“There is nothing to suggest that he’s run away. There is nothing to suggest what he’s done. We are truly stumped in this investigation.”
Police will continue to investigate Boucher’s disappearance as a missing person case, but Martin says making any progress will be difficult without new leads from the public.
“I don’t like saying ‘we don’t have any clues’. In this particular explanation, we do not (have any clues),” he said.
Martin says there are four possible theories being considered by police for Boucher’s disappearance, although there isn’t any evidence pointing to any of them.
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.
Although there isn’t evidence to support any of those theories, Martin says he’s particularly doubtful of the last one, given the wide outdoor area police and volunteers have already searched.
“I find it hard to believe he’s fallen down while running and we haven’t found him,” he said Monday.
If Boucher has been outside since leaving his home, exposed to below-freezing temperatures, police say it is extremely unlikely he would still be alive.
Boucher grew up in Kitchener, attending Eastwood Collegiate and the University of Waterloo.
His parents live in Waterloo, and have told CTV News they don’t know why he would disappear.
An “extensive background check” found no reason to suspect foul play, Martin says.