Name: Ronald Paul Yakimchuk
Case Classification: Missing
Missing Since: June 1, 1973
Location Last Seen: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Date of Birth: March 25, 1946
Age: 27 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 5'10"-6'0"
Weight: 150 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Faint scar over bridge of nose; mole on shoulder blade.
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Available
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Braided silver wedding ring.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Ron and his wife, Terry Pettit, left Edmonton, Alberta on June 9, 1973, to drive east in a battered Volkswagen Beetle. They were going to attend a wedding on June 16, 1973, then head to the Maritimes, where Ron hoped to land a teaching position and Terry, an Edmonton Journal reporter, intended to seek work as a journalist.
En route, they stopped to visit friends near Brandon, Manitoba. The next day, they stopped in Dryden, Ontario, and mailed a postcard with one word, "Nyah", to a friend in Edmonton. Terry and a friend had made a bet the car wouldn't make it so far across Canada and so the postcard let the friend know Terry won the bet.
Unfortunately, the couple did not arrive at the wedding, and they have never been seen or heard from since.
They traveled in a 1959 Volkswagen Beetle, red with a green hood, green fender, and Alberta license CA3-262. The car was filled with a white, three-metre kayak and boxes of clothes, books, and household goods. Their bank accounts weren't touched, and their Volkswagen has never shown up anywhere.
There was talk the couple was planning to go to Europe, but police say only Terry had a passport. They may have regarded a friend's warning and decided against staying on the narrow, hilly Trans-Canada Highway and headed south, crossing the U.S. border at International Falls and on to Duluth, MN, intending to re-enter Canada on another roadway.
Agency Name: Edmonton City Police
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 780-423-4567
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 74-005051
Agency Name: National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: N/A
Agency E-Mail: CanadasMissing-DisparusCanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Agency Case Number: 2014004477
NCMPUR
Edmonton Police Service
Edmonton Journal - Jun. 3, 2018
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 5/28/22 - By: kb
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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