"Just" another missing teen

By Sharon Weatherall

The story of Jake Just – a missing Midland teen has haunted me for many years now.

It was while working for the Midland Free Press over a decade ago that I first learned of this sad event and got together with Jake’s mother for the first time. After meeting Debbie Just, I made a vow to do whatever I could to help this quiet, soft spoken lady who after over 14 years still holds hope in her heart for the son she has lost.

Each year in the past I worked with the local Midland Police and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) – who are handling the case now, to provide an anniversary story in the paper reminding people that Jake is gone but public help is still needed to try and find out what happened to him on the fateful night he went missing.

The Midland teen disappeared on October 30, 1998 - Halloween Eve, without a trace. He’d been at a party and was gone exactly 24 hours when his mother Debbie called the police. Not a day has gone by since that she doesn’t wish she’d called sooner. Would it have made any difference? No one knows, least of all the police.

“It was 8 p.m. and I had just finished handing out tricker-treats to the kids when I decided something was not right and I was calling the police,” said Just.

“He never came home and that was not like Jake but I wasn’t sure what to do. I had called all of his friends but thought I had to wait a certain amount of time before calling the police. They told me later you can call anytime if it is unusual behaviour.”

Every Halloween Just deals with the fact that another year has passed with no word and the crack in her heart gets deeper. In the years that he has been missing many programs had been set in place to create interesting new ways of bringing attention back to this story. Jake Just is not just another missing kid – he’s someone's child and one of hundreds that go missing across the continent each year. Programs like pictures on milk cartons, a $50,000 OPP reward posting and age enhanced pictures (http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=182), extended media coverage and assistance from psychics are among the many methods being used to try and find out what happened to Jake Just – a 6’2”, 170 pound, blonde haired, green eyed Caucasian boy.  

Jake was last seen separating from a friend to take a short cut home through the woods. Extensive searches involving police and community, as well as interviews with almost 200 people turned up nothing. Since he went missing, OPP have continued to carry out grid searches of the Midland Sunnyside wooded area he entered trying to locate even a sole from his running shoes or a scrap from the Jaguar knapsack he was carrying – the only things that might remain after so many years.  There has even been a television show on the case.

On the morning of October 31, 2007 at 7 a.m. hundreds of thousands of people across the country saw Jake Just on TV and heard his story in hopes that maybe just one of them would remember something, even the smallest detail of information that could lead to finding Jake who would have turned 27 that year. He was featured on the national digital channel Court TV Canada a show produced and hosted by Sue Sgambati - former crime reporter for the Toronto Star.  In fact the Crime Files Cold Case Edition program on the ‘Disappearance of Jake Just’ was broadcast six times in less than one week.

Sadly although police confirm that the show, anniversary stories and other exercises to help stimulate information have resulted in endless tips each year, none has led to anything solid in the case. After so long, Debbie Just has moved forward with her life as much as she can, however there remains a painful sense of loss when she thinks of her son Jake  - a loss that will only be rectified when she gets some sort of closure.

“I think the cold case and missing person shows on television now are a good idea because someone might know something important and they don’t even know it. The bad thing is the criminals might get smarter about hiding evidence by watching such shows. I hope the awareness factor may outweigh the negative factors because a lot of criminals have been caught and given families the closure they need,” said Just.

Debbie Just says since Jake has been gone time moves in two ways for her – fast and slow. All around she sees people moving on with their lives, Jake’s friends are growing up, getting married and having families of their own and she is happy they have been able to the do that. She says they stay in contact and every once in while she finds something at the cemetery - a bottle of beer or some flowers that tell her they are still thinking about him too. 

As a mother of three boys, I have been able to identify with this lovely lady, her patience and hope, but in all honesty I cannot separate from her pain. The tears in her heart cause my own to ache and I will continue to work in whatever way I can to help find out what happened to Jake Just.  As a writer I will use my blog as a tool to continue working towards this end and post reminders of Jake from time to time to keep him his story alive in everyone’s mind.

Can I please remind anyone with information regarding Jake Just – even the tiniest seemingly unimportant fact, to call police at 1-888-310-1122 or contact Crime stoppers? Visit the OPP Missing person site: http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=182 and look at the age enhancement photos to see what Jake would look like now.