By Sharon
Weatherall
Jake Just’s
mom says her boy has now been missing nearly as many years as she had him. Her
son was 18 when he disappeared and was not heard from again. That’s a life time
for a mom who has never given up hope of finding out what happened.
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 Just called
the police. Not a day gone 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.”
In the early
years after Jake went missing Police issued a press release around the
anniversary date asking for tips and information leading to the disappearance
of the teen, giving details about him and what he was wearing. Each year tips
came in and police followed up to no avail. Midland Staff Sargent Jim Rettinger
has been involved in the case since the beginning and continues to the hold the
Jake Just missing person case as a priority on his desk. He understands how
difficult it is for Debbie Just as each year passes with no leads or
information come forward. Rettinger works together with an OPP case manager in
dealing with the file and Jake Just is listed on the OPP Missing Person web
site: http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=188.
“We speak to
Debbie when we have something to report. We respect that it is very hard on her
to hear ‘nothing new’, or contact her just for the sake of doing so….she wants
us to get hold of her if something comes up,” said Rettinger.
That doesn’t mean Police aren’t actively pursuing tips, they
are says Rettinger.
“That’s what we’ve been doing since day one. The anniversary
time and media coverage always precipitates tips,” he said.
“It’s out there and it’s live, it’s not like people don’t know
about it. It’s a prominent case.”
In the years
that Jake Just 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 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 photos, 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.
In recent
years Debbie Just has gained some comfort through turning to psychics and
trying to reach her son through communicating with them. Jackie Dennison from
Rescue Mediums and her associate Steve Furlong at Feathers Academy in England
have come to know Debbie over the past three years and have provided her with
details of what they ‘feel’ happened to her son. In this sense she has come to
believe that Jake is no longer alive.
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 with me 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 several police 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 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). Jackie felt a red truck may have had some significance in what happened.
Debbie Just has
said while the experience was difficult, this information has given her a small
feeling of closure to think that Jake was gone but still near her. She says the
details that came forth through psychic meditations of Dennison and Furlong has
stimulated “raw emotion” taking her back “physically and mentally” to the day
Jake went missing and the 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 16 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 16 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 and 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 light. People need to be taken
back like I was when I read this and maybe someone will come forward. 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 and then maybe we will
find Jake.”
Jackie Dennison and Steve Furlong are committed
to working on the case and meeting with Debbie to continue creating
communication. They met with her in spring 2014 and made further contact with
Jake but no new information resulted as to where he is. Now that contact has
been made, 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. 