Missing teen's mom believes daughter's coming home
Published Thursday November 5th, 2009
Only a month before her daughter disappeared, Pamela Fillier says they discussed what she should do if a man tried to abduct her.
"Just before this happened, we talked about this type of situation,'' Fillier said Wednesday, standing in front of a truck covered with photos of her missing 16-year-old, Hilary Bonnell. "She said, 'I'll fight him off,' but I told her a man would overpower her, so she should just play along."
Because of that, Fillier believes that her slight teen who loved to sing and shop and still asked to be tucked into bed each night, may still be waiting to escape.
"I don't know where she is, but I don't think it is a fluke that we had just had that conversation,'' Fillier said, surrounded by friends and flanked by her husband, Fred, and her former spouse, Boyd Bonnell, who is Hilary's father. "I need everyone, as Canadians and human beings, to pray and have faith that she is coming home."
The search for clues to Hilary's disappearance continued on a day as gray as the mood on the Esgenoopetitj First Nation.
Across a parking lot from where her mother and friends were assembled, forensic experts in white suits and masks were poring over a small bungalow rimmed with the yellow tape police often employ to cordon off crime scenes.
The house belongs to Hilary Bonnell's uncle, Christopher Bonnell, a band councillor at Esgenoopetitj, Pam Fillier confirmed Tuesday.
At this point, the Mounties are saying only that they are looking for evidence related to a criminal investigation, without saying exactly what it is that is being investigated.
"I know the answers I am giving are very difficult, but we don't want to make a mistake that would affect this major investigation,'' Insp. Roch Fortin, the regional commander for the RCMP, said. "It is a very delicate, difficult process.
"We need to take the time necessary to do our due diligence."
Standing in front of the Esgenoopetitj fire hall, Fortin thanked the community for its co-operation and support. Behind him, on the white doors of the fire house, the words "We Miss You Nancy Hilary Bonnell" were painted. Named after her late grandmother, Nancy was Hilary's given name.
"At this time the community is very sad,'' Jason Barnaby, a band councillor who joined Fortin at a brief news conference, said. "We want Hilary back safe."
Asked if he believed she was still alive, Barnaby paused: "In our hearts and our prayers, yes."
The RCMP has run down more than 500 leads since the Miramichi Valley High student at disappeared Sept. 5 and, on Tuesday, the Mounties executed search warrants at the bungalow adjacent to the little market where the teen was last seen, as well as at a remote property in Tabusintac.
Fortin said there was a link between the two places and on Wednesday forensic investigators were busy in Tabusintac, too, sweeping through a huge garage behind a weather-beaten, yellow, two-storey house on a quiet country road.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Fortin said. "It will be at least a few days."
Outside the 4D's Grocery store near where her only daughter disappeared, Pamela Fillier issued a heart-wrenching plea for her return.
"She's just a baby,'' Fillier said, a rosary wrapped around her left wrist.
She thanked police and said she was confident that the investigation would be a success, but refused to speculate about the search going on at the house next door to the grocery.
"It is just a little piece of a big puzzle,'' she said. "You can't finish a puzzle until you have every piece."
She has had trouble sleeping, and when she does, falls asleep sitting up, she said.
"I've seen this stuff on TV so many times -- a mother talking about her missing child - and I would sit on my couch and cry and think what a horrible thing for them, that it must be a nightmare,'' she said, her long, braided hair cascading over her left shoulder. "Now, the nightmare is mine.
"I am fighting for my daughter's life."
Marty Klinkenberg is contributing editor of the Telegraph-Journal. He can be reached at martyklinkenberg@hotmail.com.
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Thoughts and prayers are with and for the child