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Rumours have swirled through the Lake Erie village of Port Burwell about the fate of a man who disappeared without trace more than two years ago.
But the younger sister of Roger Chretien, 54, who vanished June 16, 2022, believes whatever happened, he is most certainly dead and possibly a victim of foul play.
“We’re a real family, Roger never misses a birthday, an anniversary, nothing,” Tina Chretien said. “The only reason he wouldn’t be around is because he is dead. He wouldn’t run away.”
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Roger and three others were fishing on the shore at the trailer park where he lived just east of Port Burwell on Lakeshore Line, Chretien said.
“Everybody says they don’t know anything,” she said. “We were told he left fishing 20 minutes before everybody else, but nobody knows where he went, what he did, he was just gone.”
If he died, Chretien said she has ruled out an accident because no body has been found.
“Anything is possible, but I highly doubt it,” she said. “Why would they hide his body if no foul play?”
There have been no recent updates from police, Chretien said.
“I hope the police haven’t given up,” she said. “You never feel like anybody is doing enough, but I do understand they have limits of what they are able to do.”
Elgin OPP said the investigation into her brother’s disappearance “is open and ongoing.”
“The OPP is requesting the assistance from the public, appealing for information,” Const. Brett Phair said by email.
Elgin OPP were unable to address Tina Chretien’s concerns that her brother may be dead by publication time.
Roger moved to the trailer park seven or eight years ago, and survived by doing odd jobs, Chretien said.
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Though her brother, the eldest of four children, was a regular user of drugs, including fentanyl, he was “a good guy” who “couldn’t break away” from his addiction, she said.
“If it was a simple OD, we would have found him in his bed,” Chretien said. “We knew his lifestyle – there’s no revenge, or hatred.”
Late last year, Chretien got a tip from a woman living at the trailer park that her brother had been killed and buried in a cornfield, she said. But the tipster died before she could share more.
Another tip came in that he was buried in a shed, Chretien said.
Chretien, who is raising money to offer a reward, said she’s haunted by her brother’s disappearance and just wants “to put him to rest properly.
“I think about it constantly all day long – not a day goes by that I don’t shed tears – everything reminds me of him,” she said. “I don’t care what the story is, who did it, what happened. We just want to know where he is and put him to rest.”
Anyone with information about Roger Chretien’s whereabouts is asked to call the OPP at 1-888-310-1222 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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