Friends and strangers alike are joining the effort to locate a 40-year-old Port Alberni woman missing since July 6.
Search efforts for Amber Manthorne are now concentrated just outside the city around Great Central Lake near Manthorne’s home, said friend Kristie St. Claire, who went to school with the missing woman.
St. Claire described her friend as a “multi-faceted, talented woman” who runs a cleaning company, works at a retail marine store and helps a friend in a photography business.
Manthorne is scheduled to be the maid of honour in an upcoming wedding, said St. Claire, who called her friend a “firecracker” and said it’s totally out of character for her to disappear.
“She’s the kind of person that just lights up a room.”
St. Claire said a search has already been carried out around Cassidy, where Manthorne’s white 2021 Jeep Compass was located last weekend. The police conducted forensic analysis and used a tracking dog, she said.
The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit recently joined the case.
The search of logging roads around Great Central Lake began Sunday night, St. Claire said.
“Since then we’ve rallied up everybody we have,” she said. “We’re creating maps, we’ve got a checkpoint at the Tseshaht market on Pacific Rim Highway through the day.”
St. Claire said she was heading to join the search late Thursday afternoon, as soon as she got off work, and planned to stay until sundown.
The search area is extensive and includes logging road and lakes, she said, so everything from drones to dogs and divers has been deployed. “We’ve had friends and people searching that area at length, stopping at every bridge to look underneath, checking anywhere and everywhere that they think that she might be.
Some of those who have joined the hunt work in search and rescue and have volunteered to come out on their own time, she said.
St. Claire said anyone with information about the case can call Port Alberni RCMP at 250-723-2424. Since Manthorne’s vehicle was found some distance away, she also suggests calling the police in your local area with any tips.
Close to 6,000 people have been on the Facebook page Finding Amber Manthorne, St. Claire said, which is a testament to how well-liked she is.
Manthorne was originally thought to be in the company of Justin Hall, but he has since been located.
A message from Hall’s email address sent to CHEK News said “… I did not hurt my girlfriend. I do not know why she isn’t back home.”
The message said the sender panicked after an argument “and I just wanted to get away from everyone. I wasn’t able to contact anyone because I didn’t have a cellphone and by the time I did it was too late, I was already guilty in your eyes.”
“I lost the only person that still had my back,” said the sender, who claimed he was not the last person to be with Amber. “I have been calling her cell just to hear her voice and then I cry till I have no tears left. I would do anything to get her in my arms.”
Anyone wanting to donate to the search is asked email [email protected].
Manthorne is described as five-foot-two and 120 pounds with long blond hair and blue eyes.
