Dad will never stop looking

Photo: Contributed

Ashley Simpson has been missing for more than a year.

John Simpson wants closure.

The father of Ashley Simpson, who went missing more than a year ago from the Yankee Flats Road area, has accepted that he will never see his daughter again, but he will never give up searching until he can lay his child to rest.

Ashley is one of five women who have gone missing in the area between Vernon and Sicamous during the past 20 months. The remains of one of those women, 18-year-old Traci Genereaux, were found on a farm near Silver Creek.

Police spent almost a month searching the Salmon River Road property, and Simpson said he was on pins and needles the entire time, wondering if the next time the phone rang it would the police saying they have found his daughter.

That call never came, and on Thursday, RCMP officially ended their investigation of the farm.

“Our hearts go out to the Genereaux family,” Simpson said Friday from his Ontario home. “It's been a tough couple of weeks. It's been a roller coaster of emotions.”

Simpson said they are “back to square one” in the search for Ashley and for closure.

“The police are pretty sure she met with foul play,” said Simpson. “They say they have evidence for that.”

Simpson has crossed the country to Salmon Arm several times since his daughter disappeared, and plans to keep doing it.

“I have been doing a grid search for the past 18 months, so I will continue with that,” he said. “I'm going to keep plugging away at it.”

A golf tournament also raised money to purchase drones that will be used in the search. Simpson sent two drones to people he knows in Salmon Arm so they can search from the air.