Still missing: Family holding out hope that Michael Bailey is still alive

Gail Bailey has a hard time walking down the street without seeing her missing son Michael’s face on every corner.

Five years ago, suffering from depression, his marriage recently ended, then 38-year-old Michael Bailey disappeared, last seen headed westward down Broadway Avenue after police asked him to move on from private property on Bowkler Road.

Two weeks prior to that was the last time his family heard from their reclusive brother and son, leaving them to wonder daily what happened to him.

Did his mental illness force him into hiding or has he met a more sinister fate?

“It’s been difficult,” said Gail Bailey on Thursday, a day shy of the fifth anniversary of his disappearance. “Every time you go out you’re constantly looking for him.

“It’s stressful not knowing where he is.”

They’ve looked everywhere, stretching their search as far as Toronto, where someone recently reported seeing Michael Bailey, who is described as being 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, with blond hair, hazel eyes and burn scars on his left arm and ankle.

Lakehead Search and Rescue spent a day several years ago combing the woods surrounding their rural Norkooli Road home, and Rogers Television featured him on a recent documentary. Michael’s face is splashed all over Facebook and has a profile on MissingAdults.ca.

Gail Bailey says she and her husband Norm did everything they could to get their son to deal with his depression before he dropped out of sight.

“He came out here to see us. We walked up and down the road together. We were trying to get him some help. He didn’t want the help and he literally took off and disappeared.”

His parents and sister thought nothing of it, but after a couple of weeks, they began to worry.

“He always called,” Gail recalled, noting once they began their search she spotted wrappers from candy bars she’d given him and assumed he was somewhere in the area.

Sister Patti Pella, whose four children want to get to know their missing uncle, says Michael’s whereabouts are always in the back of her mind, no matter where she is.
“Does he need us? Is he somewhere hurt and he needs help? Is he trying to get home and he just doesn’t know how to get home? You just don’t know.  I feel like he’s out there somewhere and I have hope, because if you don’t have hope, then what do you have?” she said.
Police say they investigated Michael’s disappearance for nearly a year-and-a-half, but have come up empty.

Staff Sgt. Don Lewis of the Thunder Bay Police Service said on April 20, 2007 officers asked Michael to leave the private property where he was camping off Bowkler Road; when he complied, there was little more police could do.

They offered to take him to a shelter, but he refused, and went on his way, the last time anyone knows for certain he was seen.
Lewis said despite the five-year gap, there’s a possibility Michael Bailey is still alive.

“It depends. Michael is a reclusive type of individual and doesn’t enjoy the company of other people,” Lewis said.

Mother Gail has a simple message for her now 43-year-old son.

“If he’s out there watching, we just want him to know we love him very much. We want him to come home. No matter what, we just want him to come home. He has a family here who loves him and wants to know where he is,”
 
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 684-1200 or 623-8477.