| It’s been 15 years since six teenagers vanished in the waters of Lake Ontario in Pickering. Their disappearance remains a mystery. Chris Odo could have been the seventh teen who went missing that night. He was a step away from disappearing with Jay Boyle, 17 Michael Cummins, 17 Daniel Higgins, 16 Chad Smith, 18 Robbie Rimboaldt, 17 and Jamie Lefebvre, 17 after leaving a party on St. Patrick’s Day in 1995. They had all been at a friend’s house party, teenagers on March break celebrating some time off school and of course the day of green bubbly beer and leaping leprechauns. Odo said in a telephone interview from Alberta that he recalls walking with the boys down his street, which was on the way to the beach. Higgins was with the group of six and wanted Odo to come with them down to the beach for some fun on the boats at the marina. They were going for a joyride out on the lake. This was no new adventure, the boys had done it before. Odo says, “ We used to take the boats out all the time, and go hang out on the dinghies and drink.” But that night was cold with gusty winds. Odo refused to go because of the stormy weather. Odo’s mother Melva Donnelly says, “The cold saved my boy that night. Chris hated the cold.” Odo agrees if it wasn’t so bitter and stormy that night, he would have gone down to the beach with the group. “Danny was supposed to sleep at my house that night, and I told him not to go, but he left. I always felt like I should have done more,” he said. So Odo went home with another friend while the others walked down to the lake that would soon be their watery grave. Higgins didn’t sleep over that night. Higgins didn’t sleep at home either. He never returned from the beach and neither did the other five boys that went down to the beach for a joyride that would be their last. Panicked girlfriends called police when their boyfriends didn’t come home the night they disappeared. It wasn’t until the next day when two boats were reported stolen from the Liverpool marina in Pickering that the police connected the two. According to the police reports, two boats were reported stolen, a four-metre imitation Boston whaler, and a three-wheeled paddleboat. It wasn’t until 36 hours later that Durham Regional Police started the search, according to Odo. They were joined by the Toronto Police Marine Unit, the Coast Guard, Hercules C-130 aircraft and a helicopter from the air-sea rescue unit at Canadian Forces Base in Trenton, in a search that would draw thousands in to help search for the missing boys. All that surfaced was a gas tank believed to be from the Boston whaler. Aside from the gas tank nothing else was found. Out of six boys nothing. No hats. No shoes. Not even one piece of clothing. And to this day still nothing. Odo says, “The first year was the hardest for me.” He knew in his heart Danny was gone, but he didn’t want to accept it. There were stories about the boys taking off because they owed money to people, that they were in trouble with the law, but Odo knew none of that could be true, he says. “If Danny was in any trouble, I would have known about it. Danny was like a brother to me.” Donnelly had just as much of a hard time dealing with the missing teens. Higgins was like a son to her. He slept over all the time, she says. “One of my favourite memories of Danny was him sleeping over and asking if we were having pancakes in the morning. He loved my pancakes.” Donnelly grieved for the missing boys, but she was also relieved that her boy came home that stormy night. Every year the families of the six boys gather at the beach. Somber siblings, mourning mothers, and teenager Kiera Boyle who never even had the chance to meet her dad Jay Boyle. Kiera was unavailable for comment, but left this message on the Facebook page set up for the boys remembrance: “The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned R. I. P. Daddy I love you xoxo.” Candles used to flicker in the wind on top of pictures of the boys years before. Tonight there are yellow balloons tied to trees that grow by the stone pebbled beach line. The balloons sway in the wind with messages of love.“ We love you Jay you are missed and loved every day, but never forgotten xoxo.” Odo could not leave his job on the oil fields of Alberta to come to the lake he has visited for the last 15 years. This is the first year he couldn’t be here. But he will never forget his friends, the lost boys of Pickering who vanished in the dark waters of Lake Ontario. |
Andrea Shierson
FLOATING MEMORIALS: Messages written by the families of the ‘lost boys’ adorn balloons at Lake Ontario on Liverpool Road. It has been fifteen years since the boys went missing on the lake.
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