Emma Fillipoff

Case background and investigation

Emma Fillipoff grew up in Perth, Ontario, and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in the fall of 2011. According to Victoria Buzz, she went west to pursue art, poetry and photography while supporting herself with restaurant work. By November 2012 she was staying at the Sandy Merriman House women's shelter, Vice reported.

Her mother, Shelley Fillipoff, booked a flight to Victoria after a distressed phone call from Emma on November 27, 2012, according to Vice. Wikipedia's account, drawing on local reporting, says that on November 28 Emma bought a prepaid mobile phone and a prepaid card at a convenience store, and that evening got into a taxi bound for the airport but got out again shortly afterwards; these details rest on Wikipedia alone.

At about 7 p.m. that evening, a man who found her barefoot near the Empress Hotel called police, Vice reported. Victoria police later said they had received calls about a woman behaving oddly in front of the hotel. Officers spoke with her for more than 40 minutes and, according to the department, were satisfied as to her well-being before she continued on her way. Her mother arrived at the shelter later that night, and Emma was reported missing within hours. She has not been seen or heard from since.

Police searched her red Mazda MPV van, which Wikipedia says was parked at the Chateau Victoria hotel garage. Inside were her passport, laptop, camera, journals and other belongings, according to Vice.

In May 2014, security cameras at a clothing store in Vancouver's Gastown district recorded a man carrying one of the reward posters her mother had distributed. The store owner said the man claimed Emma was his girlfriend and wanted to be left alone, Victoria Buzz reported. Police were unable to identify him. According to Wikipedia, a witness account led to a search of an area near Esquimalt in December 2018, which found nothing, and an updated sketch was released around the tenth anniversary in 2022.

On the ninth anniversary in November 2021, Victoria police released additional photographs of Emma and said that an extensive investigation had not determined what happened to her. The department said it had received hundreds of tips but had confirmed no sightings, CTV News reported. The case was the subject of an episode of CBC's The Fifth Estate and has been covered by several podcasts. Anyone with information is asked to call Victoria police at 250-995-7654.