NEW UPDATES in the search for missing Parker + GREAT advice for all missing children

Good morning everyone. My name is Michelle. I hope you’re doing well. Welcome to another video. It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of July, and we are going back to Calgary today to the case of the 11year-old Parker, the boy with autism who has been missing now for over a week. I know not a lot of people are following this case, but if you just happen to click on this video to see what it’s all about, please stay because the Calgary Police Service, who is the lead agency searching for Parker, have given some really good advice for

searchers in missing child cases. So, some of this information that I’m going to share is relevant to any missing child case. So, at least stay for the first half of the video where we’re going to talk about that and then we’re going to give the latest update from the Calgary Police Service about Parker specifically.

 So, that’s what we’re going to do. Let’s go. First of all, there is a scam alert. Dear me, you know, we’ve heard about AI videos being made about Parker and given this has not really blown up. I can’t believe people do this. It’s just so cruel to everybody involved. It’s just so cruel. But there’s a scam alert. The Calgary Police Service has become aware of a GoFundMe campaign claiming to support Parker’s case.

 This fundraiser is not authorized and has no connection to Parker’s family. His family are absolutely devastated and they’re having to deal with this kind of nonsense. It drives me the wall. Yet, in this case, social media is being used hugely for the good. The civilian searches are being organized via a Facebook group and they are brilliant.

 They have covered a lot of ground. A lot of ground. I did a live stream a couple of days ago about all that the community search efforts have been doing and it’s just amazing. At this time, the family has confirmed that there is no official GoFundMe associated with this case. Police are urging public to use caution when contributing to online fundraisers and to verify the legitimacy of any donation campaign before making a contribution.

information about Parker, about scams, contact the Calgary Police Service at 403266 1 2 3 4. Okay. Right. This is the advice that is absolutely brilliant for people searching for missing children, for civilians, you know, people who are not experts searching for missing children. So, we’re going to play this short video in a minute.

 How to search for Parker on your property? Many people have asked what we mean when we ask residents to check their property. If you think this is obvious, this is really obvious. Well, there’s no such thing as a stupid question. When I used to teach back in the day, used to tell my students, if you’re wondering, if you’re confused, if you need to ask a question, stick your hand up because I can guarantee there’s at least one other person in this room who is wondering the same things.

There’s no such thing as a stupid question. In this video, Sergeant Chris Martin demonstrates how to properly search areas where Parker may seek shelter. What might not make sense to you could make sense to Parker or any other missing child. Parker is 11, but he has the mental age of around a three-year-old. He’s autistic.

 He’s nonverbal. He has learning challenges. So, think about an 11year-old body being controlled by a three-year-old mind. What might make sense to you? well, might not make sense to him and vice versa. What makes sense to him makes no sense whatsoever for you. So, it’s difficult to put your your brain into the mind of a three-year-old, but this gives some really solid concrete advice for how to search your property.

 Parker is known to enter accessible buildings and can lock doors behind him. Check homes, garages, sheds, vehicles, trailers, RVs, storage areas, under decks, between fences and hedges, and anywhere a child might seek shelter from the heat or go to sleep. Parker is neurode divergent, nonverbal, and may become frightened if approached by strangers.

 If you see him, do not approach him. Keep him in sight. Shadow him from a distance. If he’s walking, shadow him from a distance and call 911 and keep him in your sights. 4032661234. All right, we’re going to play this video now. Such good advice. Okay. >> Over the years, I found missing people in all sorts of places that didn’t make sense to me, but at the time made sense to that person.

 That’s why we’re asking you to look all over your property. Places that you might not normally think to check would be barbecue. These cabinets are plenty big enough for a small person to hide, especially if they don’t have shelves inside. So, take a minute, check inside. If you have a barbecue cover, lift it off, look under there.

 Another great place to check is inside any water feature, hot tub, pond, uh, or pool that you may have. Open the cover, have a complete look. Do you have any weird collections or piles of old junk lying around your property, like this stack of tires? Take a minute, have a quick check inside. Another good spot to check is under your deck. Take a moment.

 If you have anything that opens, actually look. If it’s dark, grab a flashlight and really have a good look. Make sure you can see end to end. Again, very easy for a small person, small child to hide under a deck. Might be hard for you, might not be hard for them. Take a couple moments to look under any tarps, inside any large landscaping bags, or around any piles of wood or yard debris you may have stacked up on your property.

 Other places to check on your property include any bins you may have that store water, garbage, or recycling. Take a couple seconds and have a quick look. When you’re walking around your property, even if it seems obvious, give it a quick look. If you have covered gardens, check in around and behind. And of course, shed.

Now, if you have a cluttered shed or it’s full, do us a favor. Take an extra couple seconds and actually walk inside. and move some things around. Small person, especially a small child, can hide in very, very small, tight spaces. Again, might not make sense to you, but it may make sense to them. Over the years, I found missing people.

 And also, >> Brilliant. What doesn’t make sense to you might make sense to them. Where he went missing from, we’re going to get the map up later. It’s a residential area. Lots of houses packed quite closely together. So, we’re not talking about checking acres and acres of property.

 We’re talking about, you know, a house, a regular size backyard, maybe some out buildings, a shed, a garage, etc. So, take a few minutes. That’s all it takes. And I would recommend you do it twice a day just in case on the move and he’s, you know, sheltered somewhere to sleep. then please check in the morning and check in the evening and make note of anything that might have moved that you haven’t moved or any of your family haven’t moved cuz that’s a really good indicator that obviously someone’s been in your property and that could be Parker. All right, let’s move

on now to the updates for Parker. The cops have been out in force. There’s been a lot of grid searching. They’ve been using drones, dogs, they’ve been out on horseback, ATVs, you name it, they’ve tried it. And the cops have concentrated on quite a small area. I think possibly because there’s a lot of CCTV in that area and they haven’t seen Parker leave.

 So although the civilian searchers have gone out much wider, the cops are focusing quite narrowly on a specific area. And it makes you wonder whether they know he’s not left that area. But still, you know, he could have been traveling at night when CCTV cameras may miss him. Everything’s on the table at the moment. Now, yesterday there were some therapy dogs that were on scene.

 Many residents, families, and community members continue to be impacted as the search continues. To help ensure support is available, the Calgary Police Service victim assistance support team community outreach trailer is on site at the Thorncliffe Green View Community Association and Recreation Center until 6 p.m. today.

 So, this was yesterday. And they had a couple of therapy dogs there. So you could go and pet the dogs. Just take a minute if you’ve been helping with the searches. Good on Calgary. They have pulled out all the stops to find Parker. Okay. And this is one of the dogs that has been searching. Bill is one of the Calgary Police Service dogs helping in the search for Parker.

 Along with fellow dogs Quinn and Goose, Bill is working alongside handlers as part of the ongoing effort to find Parker. These highly trained K9 teams are helping search crews look through yards, green spaces, and other areas through the search zone. By rotating the dogs throughout the day, our search teams can continue their work while ensuring the dogs remain safe and healthy.

 Thank you to everyone who are supporting the search efforts. 4032661234. So, it’s normal to rotate dogs and it just gives the dog a break, especially when it’s hot as it has been in Calgary. The dogs can only search for a short amount of time without needing a break. You know, lie down, some water to cool off in a, you know, shady spot.

 And it’s very intense. It’s intense for the dog. It’s intense for the handler. So, rotating dogs as usual. So, let’s listen to this little video and see what’s been going on with Bill. >> Scolding uh with the K9 unit deployed to help out on the Parker search. This is Bill. We have Bill and Quinn and Goose. This dog and the two other dogs have been tasked with searching the area’s last known uh since uh Thursday evening.

All three dogs combined yesterday did about I want to say 16 kilometers worth of searching. There’s often times when we will deploy one dog with three handlers and we’ll bounce them in between us. So we can search a much larger area at a quicker pace. So we were attached to a search team that [snorts] was assigned to look uh in the backs of yards, front yards, sideyards.

Uh, nothing for inside houses, but detached buildings. As a more experienced dog, you might see them go about an hourong search before we switch them out, depending on heat and all that kind of stuff. We’ve never been told we have a limit. It’s whatever the file demands out of it. Meanwhile, we have to ensure the dogs are safe, that they’re not getting hurt, and have the proper care.

>> So, that’s uh interesting. Let’s have a look at this update and this is very specific that Calgary Police Service are asking for. So, despite an exhaustive search and ongoing investigative efforts, we continue to be unable to identify Parker’s whereabouts after he was last seen on Thursday, July 16th at 12:52 p.m.

 Given Parker’s history of entering structures and locking doors behind him, we are asking anyone aware of vacant properties or homeowners are away in the following areas, please contact the police because he could have got into a house where someone’s on vacay or it’s a house that you know, I don’t know, somebody rents out and they’re in between tenants.

 There’s all sorts of scenarios that need to be looked at. So Travis Street Northeast, Travis Cresant Northeast, Trell Drive Northeast, Taylor Cresant Northeast, Travis Place Northeast, and Thomas Street Northeast. That’s a very small area. Let me get the map up to show you. Okay, so this is Travis Cresant.

 This is the place where there’s the last confirmed sighting of him on CCTV, and it’s this area here. So, this is a very small area. Now, there was an unconfirmed sighting on Trell Drive, but that hasn’t been confirmed by police, but I put it on my map because it made sense if Parker was traveling south that he would pass this area.

 But they just can’t find any CCTV past 1252. So, are the vacant homes in this immediate vicinity where he may have got into and not been able to get out? And obviously, it’s vital if that’s the case to find him before he passes away from dehydration. That’s where he went missing from, his day home.

 He was last seen at his day home between 11:08 and 11:41 a.m. And then there were some claws found that could be Parker’s on this street here and he was seen on CCTV here. And the cops released a map of his proposed route. fascinating to see that he’d double back on himself because the cops do have more CCTV. They haven’t released because it’s lower resolution and the important ones are the the ones that give a time, you know, an accurate time um direction of travel and the resolution is good enough to know that for sure it’s Parker. This is

the proposed map that the police released. So, went missing here. So they think he went up here and then they don’t know exactly. So there mustn’t be any CCTV up here, but just going on a straight line. He gets to here, drops his maybe top because he’s hot, travels along here, then he starts to meander why in this specific area.

 And this now becomes very understandable why they’re searching this specific area because he’s double back on himself and I don’t know. So down here, down here, up here, here, here, and then he doubles back. So he’s like circling like Travis Cresant where he’s last seen on CCTV. So one of these is seen on CCTV on Mcnite. foot.

 So he goes down, up and then round and back here. And this is then last seen at 12:52. So he’s like circling this small area. Why? We don’t know. Because what makes sense to Parker doesn’t make sense to any of us. They must know. So, it makes absolute sense that they are concentrating on vacant homes, on structures that might have been ignored because, well, they’re not yours, so you can’t search them.

 But contact police because they’ll get the homeowner’s details and if they can’t track down the homeowner, then they’ll get a warrant. They’ll get a warrant. Judges are uh very open when you know there’s no crime being committed but a missing child’s life’s at stake. So Travis Street Northeast, Travis Cresant Northeast, Trell Drive Northeast, Taylor Cresant Northeast, Travis Place Northeast, Thomas Street Northeast.

We continue to ask residents to check their properties as well as realators and property managers to ensure vacant properties have been searched. So the homeowner lives out of the area. There might be a realtor or a property service that is, you know, in charge of that property.

 Maybe a property is in between tenants. So if you have on your books a property in that area or even a little bit further away, please get access and do a thorough search. Parker was last seen shirtless, wearing dark shorts and black noiseancelling headphones. He’s 4 foot 11, approximately 90 lb, so could crawl into a very tight space with brown hair and a shaved head and brown eyes.

Parker is neurodeivergent, non-verbal, and may become even more scared if confronted by strangers. If Parker is located, members of the public are asked not to approach him, shadow him if he’s on the move, but from a distance, keep him in your eyesight, and call 911. We continue to ask anyone in the Thorncliffe area and may have CCTV or Dash footage from Thursday, July 16th to now, regardless of whether Parker is seen, to submit the footage through the uploaded link here.

Okay, there. So, I’m going to leave a link to the Calgary Police Service Facebook in the um description box, so you can just click the link. So, this is an update from the lead investigator. I’m going to play the full video. So, I’m going to say goodbye here. If you’ve watched this, you can click out now.

 If you haven’t, please stay tuned. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’ll see you in the next video. Over to the Calgary Police Service now. >> All right. My name is Acting Staff Sergeant Scott Gutter. Guo N. Thank you for coming. We remain committed to using every resource at our disposal to bring Parker home.

 We are not going to give up. The missing in person investigation will continue until he is found. despite exhaustive and ongoing investigative work which includes following up with more than 400 tips uh capturing more than a thousand individual video clips from over 150 different locations thus far and these numbers will continue to grow as the investigation progresses.

 We have still been unable to identify a point last seen beyond that which has already been given, which was Thursday, July 16th at 12:52 p.m. Through the coming days, we ask our residents to continually check their properties, checking their garages, their sheds, any boats that may be being stored at their homes.

 Any RVs, any vehicles, trunks, any area where someone of Parker’s size could be found, we need those to be searched by the residents. We’re asking that any realtors or any landlords that are aware of vacant properties check them and check them again. We know that Parker was mobile and just because a particular address checked negative at a certain time and date doesn’t mean that Parker could not be there now.

 We’re asking that over certain addresses, if there are vacant homes or if neighbors are aware of other people, other neighbors who are on holidays are not in those homes, they contact those property owners and have them call us. Those streets are as follows. Travis Street Northeast, Travis Crescent Northeast, Trail Drive Northeast, Taylor Crescent Northeast, Travis Place Northeast, Thomas Street Northeast.

 If there are any vacant houses along those areas that landlords or realtors have access to, we ask that those be checked. If people are on vacation on any of those streets, uh, and you hear this, you see this, regardless of where you are for vacation, please contact the Calgary Police Service. The support from the community has been heartwarming and extraordinary.

 At the same time, we recognize the emotional toll that this has put on the community of Thorncliffe specifically and the larger community of Calgary. Uh today from noon till about 6 p.m. our victim assistance unit is set up at the Thorncliffe community uh hall to provide support and resources to any member of the community who is interested.

We also recognize that this search has affected Calgarians. So we are asking anyone who needs any sort of support because of this event call 211 the Calgary Distress Center. There may come a time when we have exhausted all the reasonable searches for Parker, but that day is not today. We still continue to search.

 We still continue to use ground uh units to search. We continue to search by air. We continue to search the water. We are doing everything we can to find Parker and bring him home. uh just to speak to the community and the tremendous amount of support and love they have given Parker over the last few days from Goldfish crackers on the ground to the amount of posters that I’ve seen in the Thorncliffe area the one the the missing poster on every corner uh every signpole that I looked at. Thank you for doing that folks and

please keep it up. We will continue to pursue every lead, examine every possibility, and we remain absolutely committed in our efforts to find Parker. I I’ll take your questions now. >> Sergeant, you have police officers asking for permission and going into people’s homes to look for look into cupboards, under beds, that sort of thing.

 How do you make that determination which homes to search interior? And how do you arrive at a decision that’s that’s fairly unusual to ask people to enter their homes? It is. But this is an extremely exceptional situation. I cannot recall a time in the city where a missing child has been missing for this long, which is why we’re ramping up our efforts.

 And in choosing which houses to actually ask for permission to enter that’s based purely on geography. It is that point last known. Which is why it’s so important that if people have CCTV and they they regardless of where you are in the city, if you have CCTV and you think you see Parker and you see that consistent description with the earphones and shirtless and those shorts and those shoes, please let us know.

>> Sergeant, at what point do you start losing hope? >> We never lose hope. We have a long-term missing person’s unit that deals with missing persons that are 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old. So, we never give up investigating. We never give up hope. But let me reiterate, we are far from believing that Parker must be dead.

We still believe there is a strong hope that he is alive and I see no reason to abandon that. Just a clarification, we we understand he’s nonverbal and >> does he have the ability I mean would he be able to go to a like get water out of a house or something? >> Yes. And that’s a I’m glad you asked that.

 If Parker was in an abandoned home, is it our it’s our understanding that he would be able to use the tap to get water and he would know to use the fridge to get food, which is one of the reasons why we’re asking those vacant homes or those homes where the occupants are on vacation to be checked and double checked. >> What can we say about bad actors? You guys had to put in advisories a few times as many days.

 I’m assuming you’re talking about the despicable reports suggesting that he’s been found dead >> as well as the things that came after acid vigilantism. Last night there was the uh the donation scam. >> Right. Right. >> Any of those things. >> So, I’ll speak about I’ll speak about the vigilantes first and and I’m glad you used that word cuz I think that’s probably accurate. I get it.

 They think they’re doing the right thing, but the reality is you’re taking police resources away that are far better served continuing to look for Parker. All you’re doing is you’re getting in our way of the job that we need to do. So, please, if you’re thinking of any sort of vigilante action, if you’re thinking of going to someone’s private property to go search for Parker, just don’t.

 If you have a tip, you contact the police. >> I’m sorry. He He sort of asked I’m sorry. He sort of asked a a tool a multi-part question. So, let me let me finish. In terms of the scams, the GoFundMe pages, those are being investigated uh [clears throat] as fully and comprehensively as possible and if charges are appropriate, they absolutely will be laid.

 And I think there was one more thing you had asked about for bad. I think the AI you had hinted at. Yeah. Again, it’s despicable. It is. I can’t even imagine how damaging it would be for parents to read something like that online that their child that has been missing for this many days is dead without it coming from one of us. Uh absolutely despicable, absolutely horrible and it must stop.

>> What what what criteria do you use in deciding that you have come to a point where you like you’re not there yet? You said you’re not close to that yet, but what sort of things are involved in the decision making where you where you say that we we have exhausted what you said were the possibilities? >> Let me take Mr.

 Bell’s question then I’ll come back to you cuz I know that you that I inadvertently cut you off there. So I apologize. So in terms of the parameters for ramping things down, we have to look at how certain are we that we’ve achieved goals on the searchers call it the possibility of detection or the pod. We want those numbers up as high as possible when it comes to a search.

 We want to be able to say that in a given geographical area, every structure, every building, every shed, every garage has been checked. And of course, that takes time. That may change. An investigation will eb and flow. I before I talked about a a point last known if we get a new point last known and we can confirm that the clock basically resets.

 So in terms of >> point last. >> Oh point last known. That’s where that’s where Parker was last seen. So in this case it’s that uh address on Travis Crescent. >> Thursday. >> That’s right. That’s right. >> You get another one. If we get another one and it’s far away geographically, essentially the clock resets and we do the searches all over again.

 So, it’s difficult to say at what point we are going to stop doing what we’re doing because it depends on what happens today. It depends on what happens tonight. But again, rest assured that every resource we have, not just the Calgary Police Service resources, we’re getting help from partner agencies. We’ve gotten help from the RCMP.

 We’ve gotten help from other professionals who deal with a autism. We’ve secured help from professionals who deal with missing person behavior. So, not just our resources, but any resources we can muster are being put towards this search. So, I hope that makes sense. >> So, we’re not near yet. >> No, we are not. >> Yeah.

 About the clothes found on Thursday. Yes. >> Were there um dogs that were called to the scene to like kind of back down his >> No. No. because there was a significant amount of street uh street interference at the time and we we had a a fairly serious delay between when the clothing was probably depositive and when it was found and and realistically we we didn’t really need to because we were able to follow Parker on CCTV all the way to his point last known which was a couple of hours after we think he got rid of the clothing. We don’t think

the clothing is going to help us find wherever he is. >> There’s been lots of speculation about whether Parker now that we’re in day seven has been abducted or taken. How have you arrived at the confidence that that was not the case or that that’s not believed to be the case? >> Well, there is no evidence of that being an of him being abducted.

 However, we’ve considered every possibility. So, an abduction is a criminal event. Unlike a missing person investigation where we can be extremely transparent with the public as to what we’re doing, any sort of criminal investigations, we have to keep very very confidential to protect the investigation.

 So I can’t speak to anything that’s been done to specifics about what have been what has been done if we think this is criminal but I can tell you that we have considered every possible option including that he was abducted. What do you think is going to be the deciding factor in finding? >> What do you think? What what event? >> I think it’ll be a member of the public.

>> I think it’ll be a member of the public that has helped us find him. But beyond that, I would just be speculating. And again, that speaks to the importance of the public checking their yards, checking their cars, checking their trunks, checking their RVs. If if [clears throat] you uh just if you for example, if you just moved your RV into storage, say on July 17th or July 18th, and it’s no longer at your property, but it’s at some storage yard, but it was at your property during that time period, please have it checked.

That’s the level of scrutiny we need from the p public to do everything we can, not just as a police service, but as a community, to bring Parker home. Are >> you surprised he hasn’t let Frankly, yes, I am. >> With all the resources and I mean, have you seen anything like this before? >> Personally, no.

 This is this is the longest missing person with a child involved investigation that I’ve ever been involved in. >> Question, if I can ask, as well, obviously you’re asking the public to to check their homes. you’re also going door to door, but you also have officers going to, you know, Nose Hill Park, Nose Creek Park as well to the north.

 Um, is that just casting as wide of a net as possible or is there evidence either way to suggest that he is either, you know, closer to homes or in in one of those large parks? >> The the point last known hasn’t changed. Um, the logic is that we believe if he went into [snorts] the community, he would have been seen.

 But the areas that you’re talking about, the green space to the north and the green space to the south doesn’t have that as much natural surveillance, which is why we’re putting so much resource, search resources in those areas. >> How many minutes went by when the day uh noticed that Parker was missing when they called the police? Did you happen to >> I I I don’t know offh hand.