At this point, there’s no reason to suspect foul play in the disappearance of an Emo, Ont. couple from a Weslaco, Texas RV Park, says a police spokesman in the south Texas community.
Officer J.P. Rodriguez on Friday said the department has issued a statewide alert for Bruce and Linda Stewart, who were thought to be wintering at the Snow to Sun RV Park north of Weslaco, have not been heard from since Dec. 15 by family members in the Fort Frances area.
“We’re still trying to reach out to the community and hope that someone will either be able to give us a tip or some information on their whereabouts and where they may be staying,” Rodriguez said, contacted by phone.
“At this time we haven’t received any information on their whereabouts. I did get an email from a newspaper in Canada that somebody believes they may have seen the vehicle, so I’m going to contact him. But other than that we here have not received any tips.”
Rodriguez did say there are reports the Stewarts may have relocated to Yuma, Ariz. Police in the southwestern U.S. city have been contacted, but as of Friday morning, the couple have not been spotted there.
According to a release issued by the Weslaco Police Department, the couple, believed to be in their 60s, has not been heard from since Dec. 15, when Linda Stewart posted an entry on her Facebook page.
"We are here in Weslaco, TX and the weather is great, got a sunburn yesterday but not bad. Will spend the next month here," Linda Stewart wrote at 12:51 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2011. It was her first post since Nov. 10, more than a month earlier.
Later that day her son, Bill Marshall, replied.
"Good to see you guys are still alive," he wrote.
Nine days later, on Christmas Eve, he added a second response: "Is there a # where I can get ahold of you?"
Family members contacted the Rainy River detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police on Jan. 8, noting it was strange not to hear from their parents for such a lengthy period of time. Neither Bruce nor Linda Stewart carries a cell phone.
Const. Anne McCoy, the community services office with the Rainy River OPP, said the couple’s children labeled it unusual behaviour.
McCoy said the OPP confirmed the vehicles registered to the couple, relayed that information to the family, who in turn filed the missing persons report in Texas.
“What we’re doing at this point is we’re acting as a liaison with the Weslaco, Texas Police Department and the family,” McCoy said.
“Our agency here is consulting on a daily basis at this point with the family to relay any information back to them. If there’s anything the Weslaco Police Department wants us to follow up on, we’re doing that. And we’re supporting the family as best as we can.”
Son Derek Marshall told Weslaco’s KRGV-TV the family is very worried at not knowing the whereabouts of their parents.
“Somewhere in the back of my mind, it’s telling something has happened just because it’s unusual for them not to contact anyone,” he told the station.
“No calls during Christmas. No calls during New Year’s. You know, they took their canoe with them. I hear they could have gone out on a canoe trip somewhere and maybe gotten lost or maybe had an accident somewhere. Maybe they got into an accident on the highway.”
