THUNDER BAY – “It's just like he walked off the face of the earth in the heat of that day,” said Dwayne Poster, on Wednesday, the anniversary of his son's disappearance.
It has been exactly one year since Richard Graham went missing.
The Thunder Bay Police Service is renewing its calls to the public for any information on the 42-year-old's whereabouts.
Graham was last spotted on the morning of July 30, 2024, leaving an Esso gas station, formerly a Husky, on Cumberland Street before boarding a southbound city bus at the corner of Cumberland and Beck Street.
It’s still unknown where he exited the bus, according to detective Kevin Bradley with the criminal investigations branch of the Thunder Bay Police Service.
Graham was reported missing to police on Aug. 7.
“We've taken many investigative steps since that time to try and locate Richard, including talking to witnesses, talking to people on the street, reviewing all types of video surveillance throughout the city that we've had access to, physical searches on the ground — including using canines in various locations where we believe that he was heading to. We've had our drone up in the air. We've searched waterways. So very extensive searches,” Bradley said.
He said that some information has come to the police service, but after an extensive investigation into those leads, they “haven't led to the location of Richard at this point in time.”
Graham is described as a white male, standing 5'6" in height, with a slim build.
He has medium-length red hair, a red beard, and hazel eyes.
Graham was last seen wearing a long-sleeved Toronto Maple Leafs shirt, grey sweatpants, and running shoes. He also carried a black and green backpack.
Poster told Newswatch that during their extensive searches, family members have not found a trace of any possessions Graham would have “on his person at that time.”
“It's been a very difficult time for our family. The stress level is beyond what anybody could ever imagine, believe me, but we've dealt with it and we've tried to motor on with searches and try to keep busy and keep the search up on Facebook pages and that kind of deal that way,” Poster said.
The family maintains a Richard Graham Missing Person Facebook page, where Poster is urging the public to reach out with any information.
“Somebody will always answer you. It doesn't matter how small the tip is, we'll take it,” Poster said.
Currently, the family is offering a cash reward, which they increased to $5000 in April, for information that will lead them to Graham.
Bradley also urges members of the public to contact the police service through Crimestoppers.
“We'll follow that stuff up, right down to if there's someone that's potentially seen somebody or has any known items that could have been located. We've tracked those locations. They've tracked that information down as best as we can with the information that we provided,” Bradley said.
Missing persons, at times, it's just based on the information that comes in how we're able to follow it up. Video surveillance is key, but sometimes we're behind because we're trying to actively locate where this person might be going.”
Bradley said that Graham’s missing persons report is also filed on the website Canada’s Missing.ca, an RCMP national database for missing persons, as well as a provincial working group managed by the OPP.
