From her basement office, this Montreal-area woman is helping solve cold cases | CBC News

Vera Hastie spent almost 70 years wondering what happened to her sister Rosemarie Döderlein before DNA testing, artificial intelligence and a network of volunteers finally brought her answers.

Decades after the case of the missing 14-year-old went cold, Hastie’s daughter, Christa, suggested they resume the search with new technology available to them.

The women found a Facebook page called Unidentified Human Remains Canada, which posts about missing people and found remains.

Within months, the case was solved — thanks to the page’s administrator.

Jan Guppy runs Unidentified Human Remains Canada alone from the basement of her home in Laval, Que., just north of Montreal. Her large desk has a widescreen monitor and stacks of manila folders holding case files.

Her greystone fireplace is often lit, herbs growing beneath heat lamps all around her. She spends her days helping people find out what happened to their missing loved ones.

When she was contacted by the Hasties, Guppy suggested steps the women could take — like creating an age progression portrait showing what Döderlein would look like today, and having DNA tests done. Guppy chatted with them every week, guiding the two through the process and offering emotional support.

“She’s a beacon of hope for the missing, and truly, there are very few [resources],” said Christa. “The world needs more people like Jan — selfless people.”

‘It just takes that one person’

Unidentified Remains Canada now has over 40,000 followers. Guppy posts to the page every day, and says several people contact her each week about missing loved ones.

From there, Guppy will do her research: she’ll read news articles and ask for the family’s liaison officer with the RCMP, whether DNA has been collected and whether coroners are checking that DNA against bodies that are being found.

She then contacts the U.S.-based Aware Foundation, a volunteer-run organization that advocates for the families of missing people. The foundation creates flyers to bring new awareness to old cases, and encourages anyone who might know something to reach out.

Stephanie Snow-Mckisic, an Aware Foundation volunteer, says she talks to Guppy nearly every day.

“Americans cross the border all the time and travel, and we would help anybody,” she said. “It just takes that one person, that one lead, and the case can be cracked wide open.”

After the flyers are created and posted, families send Guppy their communications with law enforcement so that she can look for holes.

For one missing man who often used homeless shelters, Guppy knew those flyers had to go up in shelters and soup kitchens.

“Nobody picked up the phone and called these shelters,” said Guppy. “Somebody’s got to know this guy.… It’s just logic. There’s holes in everything.”

She also posts images from the RCMP’s unidentified remains databases on her page. She says she’s been able to identify some bodies based on their tattoos — like for Johnnie Smith, whose body was found in B.C. in 2019.

“It was a very unique tattoo. He had a picture of an arrow with the word ‘yummy’ pointing down to his crotch,” she said.

“So I got a message from a mother in Florida and she said, ‘This is my son.'”

In August 2019, the FBI confirmed his identity and he was buried in Florida.

Guppy says she is able to identify about a dozen bodies per year through her page, and has also been successful at getting the remains back home to be buried by their family.

“All of those cases are sad,” she said.

But, she says she was able to find one man alive in California after he had been missing for three years.

“A police officer recognized the poster that I had created,” she said.

“He still has not come home, but at least the family knows he’s alive and well.”

Milk carton children

Having grown up in the ’80s, the era of the “milk carton child,” Guppy would wonder what happened to the kids she saw while having breakfast.

“I guess I’ve always paid attention to the missing and I’ve always wondered where the hell did they go?” she said. “You know, they didn’t fall off the face of the Earth.”

About a decade ago, Guppy got involved with an American group of volunteers who search for missing people called Never Forget Me. She eventually became frustrated that not enough attention was being brought to Canadian cases, so she started her own page.

“My audience just kept growing, because people do care. People do want to give people their names back,” she said.

Guppy was able to develop connections with law enforcement and coroners in every province and grew a network with forensic artists, genealogists and retired police officers. Though she recognizes the gaps sometimes left by officers in charge of these cases, she works closely with police and gives them any tips that come her way.

Duncan Way, a forensic artist with the Ontario Provincial Police, says police never turn information down.

“Nobody likes to have these cases sort of floating and unanswered,” he said. “We want to close these cases.… So I would say it’s always a positive to have the public assist in any way.”

In an email, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal says it “appreciates any information transmitted to it that could help an investigation progress,” but it’s important “for the public not to substitute themselves for the work of the police officers.”

Guppy says she learned quickly to develop relationships with law enforcement.

“They realize I wasn’t just this know-it-all…. I actually was working with the family as an advocate, and I would speak up for them if they were afraid to speak or if they were too upset to speak,” she said.

“I’m not afraid to go to battle.”

‘Help people and make pizza dough’

Guppy is particularly interested in historical cases, meaning people who have been missing for more than five years. She says that in those cases, police often presume death and can even issue death certificates without a body.

The work, though grim, is always rewarding for her. Even when she can’t give the families answers, she offers them hope and support.

“I’m letting them know that somebody cares,” she said.

When asked how she stays sane while thinking about death and heartbreak every day, Guppy answered “vegetables” — both growing them and cooking them. She grows plants and herbs in her home and backyard, and spends a lot of time cooking.

“I just want to help people and make pizza dough,” said Guppy.

Earlier this year, Guppy retired from her day job as an energy broker and set up a private Facebook group for those who are interested in helping her.

With Guppy’s help, Vera and Christa found out last year that Döderlein had a living granddaughter — who had no idea her grandmother had gone missing in Montreal in 1954.

Döderlein had ended up first in Toronto then in British Columbia, where she lived for decades.

Christa says her aunt had changed her name and ran a bed and breakfast that looked just like her childhood home.

But by the time the family uncovered the story, Döderlein had died.

The Hasties are now helping other families with missing loved ones, and have developed a friendship with Guppy.

“Jan and I are a lot alike and I think that both of us have a big heart,” said Christa.

“So from last year on, we’ve been able to help other people and I hope that moving forward we can help lots more people together.”