Point of desperation: Search for missing Parker continues

There are four suspects. one currently going through the court system for Michael’s murder. Meanwhile, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, another little boy has been missing now for over 10 days. And that’s 11-year-old Parker. There in Alberta, Calgary Police Service are pulling out all the stops and a whole team of volunteers are out there searching for him and none of them at this stage are giving up.

Parker was seen on CCTV several times in the couple of hours after he went missing from his day home. He was last seen between 11:08 and 11:41 a.m. on the 16th of July. The last time he was known to be out and about was 12:52, where several kilometers away he was caught on someone’s home security system.

 Unlike Michael Vaughn, who disappeared because of monsters who were out in the neighborhood on the evening of July 27th, 2021, Parker is believed to have wandered off somewhere on his own. But where is he? Where is he? After a huge search, it spanned the entirety of that area in Calgary. fingertip searches are being conducted and there is nothing and it shows just how easily someone can slip away even in a highly populated area.

 It’s astonishing. What we’re going to do in this video is catch up on everything that has been done in the search for Parker over the last few days since I last talked about this case. So, let’s go. going to start with this piece from Global News and this talks about the volunteer searchers who have been really coordinated have put together their own search map.

 They have a really good network of people who’ve come together, strangers who’ve all come together to search for Parker. So, let’s see what they’ve got to say. >> It’s a search that has police looking everywhere as they continue the search for Parker, an 11-year-old boy with autism who’s been missing since July 16th. >> The best resource we have currently is the interactive map.

>> Volunteers are ramping up their searches as well. Find Parker Group creator Becky Wilmont says starting this weekend, their search radius has nearly doubled. So been divided into zones to help people kind of coordinate with each other where they want to search and what area hasn’t been searched enough or has been overarched.

>> Knowing that he’s been missing for over a week and you know he’s alone 11 years old. I feel for him and the family and [snorts] I could only imagine I’d hope the community would support me if I were in this situation. >> Police moved its command unit from Thorncliff School to Nose Hill Park on Friday saying it was better for operational reasons.

 They joined Calgary Search and Rescue and teams from across Alberta to search the park on Saturday. >> There’s lots of different techniques that we would use on a search like this anywhere between a hasty search where teams would just quickly check areas to more methodical type three fingertip to finger trip just crashing through the bush to make sure they’re not missing anything.

>> The amount of resources that we have employed on this search is uh been astronomical. Every single resource that is at the hands of the Car Police Service to try and find Parker has been utilized. Parker was last seen on July 16th on this security camera footage. An Amber Alert was issued by police 2 days later after they were given permission by the province.

 Amber Alerts are only for kids that have been abducted. >> I quickly realized there was a huge gap in the system uh and the Indigo Alert was born. >> Jenbo’s son is also autistic. Since Parker’s disappearance, she started a petition to improve emergency alerts for vulnerable children. It’s at nearly 17,000 signatures and growing.

>> We’ve actually got people in most provinces now that are going to head up an Indigo Alert in each province. It’s grown tremendously in a week. Uh, and I think it’s grown because there’s a need for it and there’s a calling for it. >> The premier was asked about expanding the alert system for vulnerable people during her Saturday morning radio show.

>> I think the bottom line is we have to give law enforcement this additional tool in the event that they need it and we’ll we’ll have to make the changes to make that happen in the fall. >> Parker, who is neurode divergent and non-verbal, was last seen wearing dark shorts without a shirt and noiseancelling headphones.

 Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crimestoppers. We’ve got to find that little bit of information that gives us more of a bigger picture as to where Parker went and it will send us in another direction to where we are right now. We’re desperate to find him. >> Craig Martin, Global News. >> They concentrated their search in the immediate vicinity of where he was last captured on CCTV, which was Travis Cresant.

 And a few days ago, I think it was the last video I did about Parker, the Calgary Police Service had issued a list of several streets around Travis Cresant where they wanted people to check and check and check their own properties. But at the weekend they have moved their command center from that Thorncliffe area to Noseill Park which is a little bit further out and they even closed the park for the weekend or at least certain parts of it while they conducted a really methodical search.

 So, let’s go to Calgary Police Service and each system, if you will, within Calgary Police Service have been making short videos to show what they’ve been doing. And I think this is really useful not only for the people in Calgary, but more generally to see what those systems look like. And that’s applicable across the board for missing people.

 So, it’s interesting. Let’s listen to this one. >> It’s extremely impactful to be a part of the search for Parker because this is why we work. This is why we have horses. Um, this is what they’re good at. Mountain Patrol is capable of covering 14 to 20 km per day. Um, and that’s per horse.

 So, when we deploy four horses, we can cover up to 80 km. The mounted unit can be very effective going through the green spaces and going through areas where foot access is difficult and as well as um bikes is difficult. Uh we can get a really high vantage point on their horseback. So we’re about 12 ft high which provides us a large scope.

 The response from the community has been enormous because everybody’s looking for him. Um as well as they all know why we’re there. They have so much compassion and and love and you can feel it from them and it’s nothing I’ve ever seen before in the city of Calgary. >> So that is the members of Calgary Police Service mounted unit who’ve been searching green spaces from a 12t high vantage point.

 You don’t realize how high someone’s eye level is when they’re on horseback. Working alongside other search teams, mounted patrol officers and their horses are helping search areas that can be difficult to access on foot or by bike. From horseback, officers have an elevated vantage point that allows them to cover large areas while searching parks, pathways, and green spaces.

 So, now let’s have a look at this service, the remote piloted aircraft system, commonly known as drones. They’re also helping search teams cover large areas by scanning waterways and river banks and anything out of the ordinary that may need a closer look. Information gathered from the drones is shared with ground searchers helping focus resources where they are most needed.

 So those drone pilots can plot where maybe they not been able to see like under a tree canopy or a structure. highlight that and then ground searchers can focus in on it to search that on the ground. But with advanced zoom and thermal imaging capabilities, drones can quickly access areas that would otherwise take significant time for people on the ground to cover.

>> I am the RPASS coordinator for CPS. I’m out in the field busy helping out Constable Kavanaaugh. He is flying the drone and I am what we would call the visual observer or the spotter. And so currently we are flying overhead of a creek and flying very very slowly so that we can see if we can pick up any anomalies either in the water or along the river banks.

 If I see something that looks out of place and if it’s something that warrants a closer look, we’ll contact one of the search teams on the ground. Because of how big and busy Calgary is, having the drone allows us to spread out those resources so much better than we otherwise would. The drone with its high zoom camera or its thermal capabilities and basically does the work of potentially several dozen people on the ground.

 And so it allows us to better utilize resources that we have. >> So that’s the drone service. And now this is from the City of Calgary Fire Department and they’ve been helping Calgary Police Service search waterways. And they say here, “Since July 17th, we’ve been assisting Calgary Police Service in the search for Parker by deploying specialized teams and equipment to areas that can be difficult or unsafe to access.

 Our aquatics rescue team has spent many hours searching Nose Creek, which is close to Travis Cresant, where Parker was last seen on CCTV, nearby ponds, and surrounding waterways using inflatable boats, underwater cameras, and coordinated inwater search techniques. Our technical rescue team has also searched confined spaces, including storm sewer infrastructure using specialized equipment and training.

 Firefighters from local stations of supported ground searches in alleyways, parks, and other natural areas. We’ll continue to support CPS with these specialized resources for as long as needed. We know that many community members want to help. Please follow the direction of CPS who are leading the search and avoid entering waterways, ponds, storm drains, or other hazardous areas.

 These environments can be extremely dangerous for untrained searches and may divert critical resources from the organized search efforts. That’s them going down some storm drains or something. Everything that can be done, I mean, it’s just amazing the effort that has gone into this search. It’s it’s incredible. In this video, an officer explains the various search methods that they have been using.

 And these efforts are supported by specialized and traditional techniques teams that include coordinated ground searches. The drones, as we’ve just seen, dedicated K9 teams. Um the other day, they put on a little piece about the canines that have been helping. These resources help search areas that may be difficult to access on foot and provide additional perspectives as teams continue to search for Parker.

The terrain and current heat conditions have made this work particularly challenging. In some areas, searchers are positioned closely together to ensure no potential clue, evidence, or point of interest is overlooked. Each search operation is carefully planned using investigative information. Search management principles and lost person behavior research.

 Together, officers, partner agencies, and trained search volunteers continue working tirelessly towards one goal, finding Parker. >> So, at the moment, we’re doing a type three search where we have a steady line pushing forward in a organized direction and fashion. And what we’re doing is we’re covering every single inch of ground that uh we can leave with a very high probability of detection uh and reliability that he’s not going to be in this park.

 So in addition to uh the more traditional search techniques of moving with a large body of people, we have our RPA airborne to assist with the uh aerial search and they can cover a lot of terrain features that might be inaccessible to us. We also have a number of K9 officers that have been deployed to assist as well. I’m going to move up.

 Take a look at the terrain as we get close to the creek. Make sure there’s no drop off. The work is fairly challenging. Uh the terrain today has grasses up to our waist, up to our shoulders, and as a result, we’re stacking our officers close together to make sure that we’re able to cover off every inch of ground and that we don’t miss any potential clues.

>> So, they’ll be looking for any piece of evidence that Parker has been there. You know, shoes, his um noise cancelling headphones that he might have dropped. So, they’re looking for any evidence at all in that tall grass doing a fingertip search. And then we’ve got this one about the technology.

 The GPS enabled devices that searchers can use to record the areas they’ve searched directly from the field. They can mark on it points of interest and it’s shared with everybody else in the team. The system also integrates data from other resources, including that from drones, other GPS equipped equipment, providing search managers with a comprehensive picture of everything that’s gone on and continues to go on.

 And it it can record in real time what searches are doing. So, let’s listen to Staff Sergeant Becky Spore. and I’m the incident commander in the search for Parker, this mapping program or software that we’ve recently acquired. It’s used quite widely by search and rescue and what it allows our members to do is capture the areas that they’re searching or anything of significance in real time on an app on their phone and then sends that information back to the command center.

As I say in real time, for example, in some of these areas, like in here, we can confidently say these houses, these residences, these yards have been searched because you look at all the number of tracks. >> We use GPS tracks enabled on the cell phones, but we can also import data from our drones, our K9.

 Really, anything that has a GPS enabled tracker in it, we can import after the fact as well. >> Our on ground search commanders can do a number of analytical pieces within it. sort of the density of the area and the like percentage of the area searched and like what’s our reasonable probabilities of finding someone in that area.

>> And the community searchers have also got their own map. All the areas that have been searched by volunteers has also been tracked. So every inch has been searched. Has Parker gone way further than anybody has given him credit for? But you would think he would have been caught on CCTV. It’s quite a builtup area.

 It’s very residential. You would think he’d have been caught on a CCTV camera somewhere if he’d have walked away from that area. I think that’s why they’ve concentrated so much on the few streets around Travis Cresant. But like I said earlier, over the weekend they’ve had parts of Nose Hill Park closed off so they could do that fingertip search.

 It was very carefully pointed out that this wasn’t an indication that Parker has been located or evidence has been found. It was simply so that they could have a clear space in which to work. But it needed to be cleared. So the park has now reopened. Still nothing. Now this is Sergeant Rick Wall. Let’s listen to this. >> My name is Sergeant Rich Wolf from the Car Police Service and I am the deputy ops chief and the overall search manager in charge of search manager ops for the search for Parker.

 Over the last week, the amount of resources that we have employed on this search is uh been astronomical. Every single resource that is at the hands of the Calgary Police Service to try and find Parker has been utilized. We’ve also had an awful lot of help from volunteers that have come up. And one of the things I want to say to Calgary is thanks very much for what you’re doing.

 We all want to find Parker, but you’ve been able to do it in a way where you haven’t interfered with our teams. Our search operations are coordinated. We use lost person behavior, other search management principles and that comes from environmental, his own disability, uh his movements during the day, CCTV from the investigative team.

 We work in conjunction with the parallel investigation that’s running next to us, and that is what’s forcing this search uh in the direction that it is. So, thank you, Calgary, for being out there. We need the natural surveillance of the community and the people of Calgary and all the visitors to try and find Parker. you’ve done a great job and we ask you to keep going with that because that’s what we need.

 We are desperate for information. It’s we’re at a point of frustration if you like. We’ve got to find that little bit of information that gives us more of a bigger picture as to where Parker went and it will send us in another direction to where we are right now. We’re desperate to find him. U the commitment from the service from all the different partners has been unwavering.

We have had officers that are here on their days off. They just want to find him and they just want to bring him home. So, thank you to Calgary for everything you’ve done, but just keep your eyes out there and let us know what you see. We need your help. Thank you. >> They’ve reached a point of desperation.

They need that one extra piece of information that will give them a clue really. This is Lee Wayne. >> My name is Lee Wayne. I’m the commanding officer of the missing person’s team. Since Parker was reported missing on Thursday, July 16th, the missing person’s team investigators were engaged with frontline patrol, not only to look at the search parameters that should be engaged, but also what investigative steps we could do.

 One of those streams is a canvas. That canvas involves investigators being out in community speaking with local persons and looking for video surveillance that we could access. We ingest it into a video analytics tool that we utilize and that’s able to process hours and days worth of videos within minutes in order to try and locate Parker.

 Another stream of our investigation is tips. And so we received over 500 tips from the community so far and we’re constantly monitoring the social media and we have a civilian team that’s dedicated to that. We’ve got civilian analysts who are compiling all of this information together, plotting where we have video surveillance, where we’ve checked on houses and searched houses and consolidating them into one overview of the community of Thorncliffe.

 But the question is, has he been able to slip out of that area without any cameras or persons seeing him? Or are there still cameras out there that maybe have information on them that haven’t been turned in for whatever reason? Or are there particular, you know, areas where essentially you’ve got blind spots that he could have gone out of? So any little piece of information that you have that you still haven’t turned in because you think it’s inconsequential and not important, please turn it in just in case. That’s it. That’s all. That’s

where we’re up to with Parket. So please, please, please, if you have any information, please call it in. Um, if it’s an emergency, if you think you see Parker, call 911. Don’t approach Parker because you’ll spook him, he might run away. But over 10 days later and you think, well, unless he’s been getting sustenance from somewhere and water from somewhere, then can he still be alive? But please continue to check your property and keep an eye out for him.

 Just, you know, with the hope that he is still alive. Any little piece of information, please call in to Calgary Police Service and their number is 4032661234. Or there are other places that you can give information. If you need to remain anonymous, please contact Calgary Crimestoppers. You can also contact Missing Children’s Society of Canada or 1 800 6616160.

And it doesn’t matter how you give that information in. Just give that information in to one service or another. It’ll all get there to the people that need it the most. And the person that needs it the very most is of course Parker. So one final push, maybe one tip that will help them locate him and bring him home to his family. All right, guys.