It’s been 15 years since Jake Just went missing and the
‘cold case’ investigation surrounding his disappearance remains in police files
with few, if any new leads.
According to reputable psychics there are people alive today
who know what happened to the 18 year old on the fateful night he did not come
home. While information from psychic/medium sources cannot be used as evidence
in a police investigation, after a decade and a half I do believe such details
may be pieced together to help his mourning family find closure in a more
‘spiritual’ way.
In the story that follows, I share some of the
information willingly given to me by four mediums who have donated time and
efforts toward solving this case and trying to make contact with Jake Just whom
they believe died on the night he went missing.
It was Devil’s Night October 30, 1998 when the Midland
Ontario teen attended a party in the Sunnyside area of town which is densely
wooded and marshy in some places. Leaving with his friend Steve Hayes sometime around
midnight, the two separated on their way home. Steve preferred the street
lights to guide him while Jake took a shortcut through the woods and was never
seen again. Despite enormous efforts including police interviews of over 200
people, community searches, dredging of marsh areas, hefty rewards and ongoing police
grid searches, no evidence as to what happened to the boy has surfaced to this
day.
During the past decade while working for the local
newspaper I contacted family members, friends and police to do annual anniversary
stories in hopes of stirring a memory or bringing forward new information from
the public that might help find Jake. During that time I befriended Debbie Just
– Jake’s mother, a lovely lady who lives each day with a burden of sorrow that
no parent should have to experience. Her son has been missing now for 15 years
and while life goes on, the pain of not knowing where he is remains.
One source of information has been constant. Initially
Debbie received many calls from psychics and mediums sharing stressful accounts
of what they felt had happened – in most Jake was dead and the details were too
horrific for her to deal with. After a couple of years the calls began to slow
down but they did not stop. Because Debbie did not want to turn down any
information police continued to look into these calls and tips, going as far as
to meet with some psychics in locations they thought may be related to Jake’s
disappearance.
While she no longer deals directly with the calls Debbie
has continued to keep an open mind and open heart when it comes to
communications from beyond.
"Anything
that will bring exposure to help solve the case and find out what happened to
Jake I am 100 percent for it," said the anguished mother who has never
given up hope that someone has information that could lead to finding her son.
Myself, I have to believe that Jake is reaching out from
the other side to let us know what happened. He wants to ease his mothers’ pain
and find closure for his family by trying to make contact through people with psychic
gifts. Throughout my life I have always believed the spirit leaves the body
upon death but does not necessarily leave this dimension – some are earthbound
for whatever reason.
For Jake and his family, I keep writing anniversary
stories containing new angles but mostly old information. This year is
different and I hope this information points to new leads. In spring 2011, I believe
Jake influenced my friendship with the ‘Rescue Mediums’ and he was foremost in
my mind when I heard they were filming a segment of their show on site at the
Centennial Museum & Archives in Penetanguishene. I asked the staff to
arrange an interview for me with the popular television personalities and was
given 15 minutes at the end of the last day of filming. I already knew my last
question would not pertain to the Rescue Mediums’ museum visit but somehow I
would find a way to ask about Jake Just.
On my way there I had to interview a local business man
regarding an advertorial for the paper – he was to call and tell me where we’d
meet. A tree cutter, he was busy overseeing a couple of crews and when the call
came he asked me if I knew where a particular address was in ‘Sunnyside’ of
Midland? The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I knew Jake was somehow
giving me a sign. When I got to Sunnyside to meet my contact, his crew was
cutting down a tree within eye-view of the house where Jake had attended the
Devil’s Night party. Leaving Sunnyside a short while later, I felt strong
intuition as I scanned the wooded area he had entered so many years before. I was
suddenly hyped for my interview with two of televisions’ most renowned mediums.
Jackie Dennison and Alison Wynne-Ryder were as cheerful
and welcoming in person as they were on TV. We had carried out the interview
and taken a picture before I ventured to change the subject and ask about Jake.
I told them a teen had gone missing 13 years prior – without a trace. “No one
knows what happened to him,” I said.
To my surprise Jackie Dennison’s demeanor changed from
smiling to serious.
“There are two people who know what happened to him,
Sharon …..a girl and a boy,” said Jackie.
As it turned out, police work was not new to Jackie Dennison
who has been involved with criminal investigations in the past by sharing
psychic tips and information received through meditative readings. In Northwich
England she is head of ‘Feathers Academy of Clairvoyant Mediums and Holistic
Therapies’ Cheshire. Jackie gave me her personal email to stay in touch.
It was like somebody pinched me. Not only was I hearing
some potential new information but I was getting an open invitation for help. Filled
with compassion for the Just family, Jackie and Alison said they would be
"willing to help" in any way they could - they understood my need to
do something positive for Jake's upcoming 13th anniversary story.
Later that summer using only two police pictures of Jake
(one aged 18 and one age enhanced) mediums Jackie Dennison, Alison Wynne-Ryder
and Anne Jones meditated on Jake. Their premonitions included rusty oil drums,
water and trees, a wooden pier, a long wooden structure near the water, a
missing chain, a significant badge or button, concrete and stone rubble – many items
that could certainly be in the area or at any waterfront community in Southern
Georgian Bay. Sketches of landmarks accompanied the meditation reports.
Descriptions and sketches of specific females and males were given by Jackie
and Alison, while the same names of several girls and boys were noted by all
three women. Likewise all three felt a problem in the throat with choking, and
confusion caused by a head injury when focusing on Jake. Two out of three felt
that “vagrants” had taken the shoes off his feet.
The generous offer of psychic help has extended over the
past two years with Jackie and fellow medium Steve Furlong, continuing the work
together to find out what happened to Jake. The two gifted mediums have become committed
using maps, dowsing with pendulums and other forms of techniques. They, along
with an assistant - Edna Dargie, have even gone to the Sunnyside woods to
retrace the steps Jake took on the night he went missing. That experience was not
only exhilarating but informative. It was as if Jake were there speaking to
them and guiding them along the path he took then eventually exited from. Both
Jackie and Steve felt that Jake left the woods before he went missing and made
it on foot to a nearby road where he was possibly struck by a vehicle – then
taken from the area. This would make sense since his body could not be found
and searches of the wooded area have turned up no clues.
It is common knowledge Jake Just received a head injury
at the party when kids were playing a game that involved hitting themselves in
the head with beer bottles. Bleeding, Jake had asked for a ride and been turned
down because the car had “no room”. Witnesses later said they did not think the
injury was severe. Jake had also been drinking alcohol. Jackie Dennison and
Steve Furlong both felt Jake was drunk and nauseated. When he was walking along
the wood path – which was steep and rocky, they believe Jake may have fallen
and injured his head a second time making him disoriented and unbalanced. Both
mediums experienced a choking sensation as if Jake may have been drowning on
his own vomit, blood or water. While in the woods Jackie and Steve felt
strongly that Jake had definitely been there, and then left. There were premonitions
of a low back truck (possibly red). When we were walking along the road after
leaving the woods a red logo’ed truck passed slowly by which Jackie took as a
sign from Jake. She felt a red truck may have had some significance in what
happened.
In 2012 on the same weekend as Jackie Dennison and Steve
Furlong walked through the Sunnyside woods, a meeting was arranged with Jake’s
mother Debbie Just and she was asked to bring along some of Jake’s personal
belongings. Using the objects as a connection to the spiritual world Jackie and
Steve felt Jake in the room and said he was happy his mother was trying to make
contact.
“Jake is excited and pleased. He doesn’t know where he is
and he doesn’t care. He is in a place where he is helping others and has total
connection with animals, people and
children,” said Jackie.
“Jake is not bothered (about what happened to him) and
loves to help people. He is working as a helper now guiding children from
tragic circumstances and helping them to cross over - Jake has no fear of
anything.”
Debbie told the psychics “you are describing my son” -
and related in conversation that Jake had always had "too much trust".
“I talk to Jake all the time and feel him with me,” said Debbie.
Jackie told her to continue talking to Jake as he was
always close by.
Later Debbie Just said the experience while difficult,
had given her a small feeling of closure to think that Jake was passed over but
still near her. She says the information that has come forth through psychic
meditations from the Rescue Mediums and Steve Furlong has stimulated “raw
emotion” taking her back “physically and mentally” to the day Jake went missing
and a feeling she had that someone knew where her son was.
“I have always felt that someone knows. When people do
wrong they are always worried about the punishment – I have felt that
punishment for 15 years and believe it is time to balance to books,” said
Debbie.
“I just want someone to let me know - even anonymously, where my son is and let
our family move on. I am not taking it lightly when I say it doesn’t matter to
me if they are punished because they have lived with this for 15 years too –
that’s got to be hard. We just need closure.”
Debbie says it’s hard for her family to go to the
cemetery to see a tree and a plaque while knowing Jake is not there.
“I don’t know where Jake is but my main concern is to
find out where my son is! Whether what happened to him was intentional or not
or if it was an accident, doesn’t matter now – I just want to know,” said
Debbie.
“It has to come out sometime, somehow. It has been quite
a few years since there has been a wakeup call like reading this blog brought
to me and I think this is the year to make it loud and clear. People need to
know that Jake has not gone away - we are still actively working on his case. They
need a wakeup call to take them back to that day then maybe they’ll come
forward and maybe we will find Jake.”
Jackie Dennison and Steve Furlong are committed to
working on the case and meeting with Debbie again at some point in the future.
Now that contact has been made with Jake, everyone wants to move forward and
find out exactly what happened to him. I hope to be a part of that discovery
and that hopefully the knowledge will help Debbie Just and her family find
peace.
