Thirtieth anniversary Chilliwack girl’s disappearance
Posted February 19, 2013 12:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHILLIWACK (NEWS1130) – Today marks 30 years since ten-year-old Jo-Anne Pedersen went missing. Her mother is still holding out hope that someone knows what happened to her.
Angela Reilly’s girl was last seen at a phone booth outside a convenience store at Watson and Vedder Roads in Chilliwack on February 19, 1983. Jo-Anne called her parents, asking them to pick her up because she was locked out of her house. By the time her parents arrived, Jo-Anne was gone.
At the time, witnesses reported that a man was in the phone booth with Jo-Anne; police have never identified him. Over the past five years, Mounties have received three anonymous letters, claiming to have witnessed events leading up to her disappearance; they’re now trying to get in touch with the person who wrote these letters.
Reilly thinks about Jo-Anne every day and wants to know what happened to her. “I remember her as everything, and [I’m] just waiting for her. If they could just send something that police could understand… we could have some closure on this.”
“I always believed that Jo-Anne will come home one day and to just keep her in their prayers… if it is God’s wish he will allow this to happen and she will come back,” she adds.
“The police are still receiving information on this ongoing investigation,” says Corporal Tammy Hollingsworth. “Investigators are hopeful that we will soon know the truth regarding what happened to Jo-Anne so we can give her mother and family closure.”
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Chilliwack RCMP Serious Crime Unit at 604-792-4611 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
