The Vanishing of Madison Scott

we live at 24/7 but she is missing and it's our child it's it you know she's to some people she may just be you know a girl that's missing to us she's our world she's our daughter and we need to find her we need to get her home where she belongs this is just it's it never lets up never you're reminded of it constantly maddie is the type of girl she's a very independent strong witty smart girl she loves her family and friends and she loves life she just loves doing all of her activities she's into photography her dirt biking swimming water sports Matt he's just a great rounded person me and Maddie decided to go camping that night because it was a party and we didn't want to drive home drunk that Nate was actually the first Nate me and Maddie went camping together the last time I saw Madison was Friday night she had left the house to go on a camping trip and had forgotten some of her items attempt pulls and she came back to the house to grab them when we pulled up to the lake um we like unpacked the tent but it was too small of a tent and it didn't have a poles so then he headed back to town and got a bigger tent and that was about 9:30 on Friday night so last time I saw Maddie um I asked what she was it why she'd come back home she said she forgot her temples and she was just grabbing them and said have fun be safe and we'll talk to you tomorrow love you it was the last thing I said to her and then we headed back out and set up a tent and then all the girls went out and got some firewood and then we came back and then there was more people and we set up her tent and then we started to drink and more people came and then there was some rowdy people that showed up that were not friends with the people out there I got like super drunk I guess like and things started to change and like more people started to show and then I fell in the fire and that's why I left by the time I left there was around five people left when we first knew something was wrong I think wasn't really until Sunday morning Maddy had made a few different plans she hadn't didn't have concrete plans that weekend she wasn't sure what she was doing and she there were a couple of her friends that actually tried to contact her on Saturday we had been trying as well to call her I we were just I was just checking in Alden dad asked if I'd heard from her and I had tried to contact her and the cell service out there isn't very good and so it was actually Sunday morning was when I hadn't heard from her yet I hadn't been able to reach her Dawn had gotten hold of her friend and her friend's mother I believe and we just decided we should go up to hogsback and investigate and see what was going on I tried to get ahold of Jordie and I phoned her parents place and spoke with her mother and her mother said that Jordie had been in since the day before and that was when I just felt something wasn't right that we hadn't heard from Mattie after I got off the phone with Jordi's mom and got her number and found out that Jordy had been at work Eldon was at work over at his shop and I called him and told him that I had spoken with Jordie and her mother and she hadn't been out there since Saturday so Eldon came home and we got into one of the vehicles and we drove out to the campsite and when we got to the campsite the only things that we found was Maddie's tent and her truck and her belongings and that was it in the whole campsite there's just Maddy stuff when we arrived that hogsback everything was there it either then Madison was nowhere to be found this is a spot over here where Maddie's truck and her tent were parked where we found it the last location at hogsback that Maddie was seen her pickup truck was parked right in this area close to the table and her tent was just parked over there on the other side of the table she had a nice view of the lake and this is exactly where we found her truck and the tent all of her belongings everything but Maddie just minutes within after getting there we looked around we had spare keys with us and we opened up the truck and saw all Maddy stuff that it was there everything that was there except for her keys and her phone and her and we looked around Eldon started doing a broader circle there was a another some other people camping nearby that my wife went and talked to and turned out they were friends of Maddy that we talked to them and they hadn't seen her and the truck had been there the whole time from the night before we looked around I wander around the trails in their media area looking for whatever and didn't really see so shortly thereafter Dawn contacted the police thanks aunty hi I'm I'm calling my daughters 20 where the talks back and I haven't heard from since Friday night and we just came out and I pick up this year in the vehicle and people haven't seen it but oh okay what's her name Madison Scott and what's her date of birth April 29 91 so she was last heard from on Friday night yes Oliver says here but yeah where does she live with you yes with us Vanderhoof I noticed some people up there and I went over and it happened to be a friend of Maddie's and she had been there for a couple of days I think and I told her that we had driven out and we were looking for Maddie and asked her if she had seen her and she said she hadn't and so I immediately walked back to Matty's truck intent into Eldon and I phoned the police then so probably just shortly after getting there within 10 or 15 minutes if they get a vehicle with her the vehicle is here yes I was we are out of hogs back I talked to her Friday night and then we just haven't heard from her yesterday and her cellphone has been said and the check has been there all the time the truck yes it has been one of the truck and the tent right now and no answer on her cell you know answer it's been dad it seems since yesterday what was going through my mind was just where is she and you just so expected any minute that she would show up as soon as we drove out there thought as soon as we pulled in that she would be sitting there you know around the fire with her friends and I would be asking her what she was doing and she wasn't there you know she just nowhere to be found pathology a Madison know she would be five four what's her weight 170 years her hair ginger colored ties a green eyes I think when Jordie left she didn't want to leave Maddie there she asked if Maddie would come with her but Maddie said that she was set up in her tent and she was staying I think Maddie thought that there was other people stay in there besides besides her she like was kind of like know like don't leave like and she but she was already in bed and I was just like well like I'm I can't like I need to go like I'm just super drunk when I went back to I was back in the morning I found like the tent door open basically and like everything was just around in the tent like spread it out like push to the side and like that was it I don't know what time the police met us at the lake I believe the police work came out shortly after the phone call was placed which I think was approximately 12:30 in the afternoon after the police arrived they talked to us about they asked us what where Maddie should be and what we expected when she would have been expected home who she was with and stuff like that at that time I believe they you know asked us to contact anybody any of her friends and they never quit acquaintances so we started phoning anybody that she was associated with you know and many people as we cared and anybody that came and went out of the campsite we we were talking to and just trying to contact anybody that might know where she was medicine is a fun-loving super creative independent funny just amazing young girl in class she was always a leader in our video projects she would direct edit script everything out storyboard you know everything and yeah she's just very independent and fun gracious Maddy is super funny I mean she's the funniest person I've ever met and she always has so many activities to do I mean if you hang out you'll you know you'll be doing something fun one of my favorite memories with Madison was and she came and spent a weekend with me where my parents were out of town and we goofed around the entire weekend and put on all my mom's old clothes and danced a party for two we used to make home movies there it is it's just something to do to pass the time right so we make these funny horror movies we have visual arts class where where we would all get together in a group and make funny movies because some readers would always be funny Maddie and I were in the same digital arts class in grade 11 and 12 and we were in the same group there was about six five or six groups in each in each class and we all had a name and we were called shenanigan productions and we we actually ended up winning top on visual arts group and my senior year Maddi enjoys enjoyed school but she she's very social and to her it was more of a social thing and that's just the type of girl she is she really enjoys people and she is so incredibly intelligent and witty and she could just write so well and she didn't always supply herself as well at school but she had fun enjoyed school she's hard to describe like she's so dynamic like she's kind of a girl who you know like throw on a dress one minute and the next thing you know like you'll see her in coveralls like changing like the oil and her truck and stuff and she's kind of like always the life of the party and um I don't know she's pretty stubborn and likes to do things her own way but she's a lot of fun and she's a really really good person to be around Maddie had a lot of interests and hobbies she's quite athletic she liked playing hockey mostly she liked riding her dirtbike she would ride horses with Georgia her sister and I from time to time she loved camping she loved the outdoors yeah she's just very outgoing and really likes trying new things and if she meets a friend that's into something you know she's always up for up for a new adventure she is who she is she doesn't try to be somebody that she's not and you don't like her well she really wouldn't care too much either way but she doesn't try to be fake or anything and she's like one of those friends that would give her shirt off her back to help you if you needed it you there's a complete shock when I found out that she was missing because she's honestly one of the last people you would ever think that what happened - I didn't seem like that could happen - Maddie had she better no one knew where she was I was in disbelief I figured since Madison kind of has spontaneous personality she probably just went to prints or something and maybe she lost her phone there to nose I mean I couldn't believe it at all when I first heard of Madison gone missing I didn't really know what to think or what to do but just tried to find as much support as I could to her parents and try to find her stuff the night Maddie went out dogs back her and I were supposed to actually hang out that night I was in town for a practing for school at the hospital and was going to be heading back to Prince George soon for the summer so we had planned all week hang out Friday and day before I think I started taxi Maddie about it you know asking what we were going to be doing and she finally replied through texting and said I'm going out to this my friend's birthday party tonight at hogsback sorry would I understand of the night that he disappeared his that there was a birthday party it was posted on Facebook a whole lot of people showed up people that weren't really associated with that crowd at all and I decided to leave in different groups at various times in the night and Maddie was left behind nobody can't there but her the next day some people came back to get things that they missed and we saw her tent there but they didn't go by to shake it or get her to wake up or anything so nobody knows that she was there it just didn't make any sense to me and it didn't really clue into her being gone until the Monday morning and then it really sunk in and it was just horrible I know Maddie and so I thought you know what if she's in a circumstance she's going to be able to get out of it you know she's just one of those amazing women that are capable of so much and I I was in total denial that know this cygnus know she's you know walked off like something's happened like I mean I was crying I was really upset but at the same time I kind of thought no no no not Maddie like this isn't something that would happen to her ever I would never ever suspect that this would be something that Maddie would go through my god just told me that yes something is very wrong she actually has gone missing and when I found out she had gone missing it was from a random text from a random person just spreading the word to everyone but for some reason I just I felt that it was very true and you know something it actually happened a lot of people were on Facebook and we were all saying Maddie where are you and you know even weeks later saying hey Maddie aren't we going to get together and you know work on your portfolio because I mean as far as we knew there is no sign of struggle or anything and that it was kind of like what happened what went on how is this even possible this is happening to this girl to this family and this community I was part of an investigative team that responded to Vanderhoof British Columbia after dawn Scott Madison's mother contacted the Vanderhoof RCMP to report that her daughter was missing one of our investigative priorities upon arriving in Manor was to identify and interview everyone that was at the party that night with Maddy on top of that there was a party the next night at Augsburg Lake and investigators also worked diligently to identify and interview those people as well the police have pretty much interviewed everyone and polygraph everyone from the party which is over 50 some people now I believe in it's kind of at the point now where they believe that it's someone who wasn't actually at the party has something to do with Maddy disappearing I think it's no secret that in the course of the investigation polygraph has been used as an investigative tool I would be doing a disservice to those people who have undertaken the polygraph examination to speak specifically to the questions as well as we continue the investigation we may have to use this technique further to eliminate people in respect to their involvement in Maddy's disappearance but I can say that we have received cooperation from everyone that was at that party that night to eliminate themselves from the any involvement in Maddy's disappearance it's been very frustrating I don't think anybody from the party knows anything but obviously somebody does and they haven't come forward yet in the early onset of the investigation investigators were assisted by a Chaco Valley search-and-rescue and other agencies to conduct a thorough search of the area around hogsback Lake the search was conducted by land by air by water using our CMP resources private searchers conducting checks of properties in areas that were reported the initial search the grid search around the hogsback Lake area was conducted by under the guidance of professionals with the search and rescue it was a bit frustrating just in the fact that you wanted to be out there all the time looking but as the day's wore on we did understand their process their procedure and that it made sense for people to just go out in groups of ten or twelve with one member of the search-and-rescue team that understood the procedure the combined search effort were search and rescue helicopters dogs hundreds and hundreds of local people had come out and grid searched and some of these areas in here have been regrade searched two three times we go out in shifts and then return back to camp of course we would ribbon the area that we had been searched and then you would wait at the camp while other teams went out and took over from where you left off followed your ribbon lines the search-and-rescue team was working on a complete map that had a grid around the lake area and not as teams came back they would mark off that area as being searched and that was basically how the first few days of the search went on as we know it turned up no evidence of what had happened to Madison note at Augsburg Lake because there were so many people involved in the surgery realized early on that we needed to mark the areas that we felt that we had searched thoroughly and extensively so we came up with a system prior to the ribboning that we eventually did just quickly improvising with the spray paint we did the s4 scott 6 for the month of june and the second we had the date so we were here on june 2nd and then we would add the air out to show what area we focused on some of the difficulties we we face when we're searching for Mattie is a really rough terrain that you have to go through it's a very dense forest in here it's not a lot of open area so you're going through very very thick Bush hurtling over a lot of Deadwood there's tons of Deadwood that you go under and you have to look under everything the area is just like so extensive you know like you look around it like hogs back and there's you know like valleys and hills and creeks and stuff and like the I know like the whole parameter the lakes been searched multiple times and you know there's the network of trails and roads and yeah so like we just you could end up like two hours away in Quesnel and not touch a public road there is a vast network of roads out in this area leading are the hogsback lake area the bobtail the black water the Fox the grizzly and off of those roads are more roads unmarked roads unnamed roads logging roads trails that are accessible trails that you know might need a little bit of work to get into but we just really felt that we couldn't leave any area unsearched there's a number of people that understand these areas a lot better than we do and they were a big help in guiding us to two locations that would make sense you know buildings or structures that really aren't noticeable by the road you know people that were familiar with the area said it's worthwhile to look in that at the cabins by graveyard Lake within the first few days of the search we'd made our way down the Blackwater road towards graveyard lake towards bottleneck searching all of the the roads that lead off of the main road the area around hogsback Lake and all the way out to the the bobtail and so on was settled early 20s and yeah there's there's trappers cabins there's uh you know sites that people have forgotten about that you you just come across and it's Wow know even from the air you can't see some of those places it just they've been unused for so long yeah so you just don't know what's all out there we've just come off of the intersection of the block water bobtail roads this area was of particular interest during the search because of its accessibility from the hogsback lake area the block water and volcano intersection was and is a pretty major high-volume traffic area and during the search this was an area that the helicopter was able to spot a cabin off of the side of the road so they were able to give us landmarks to go off of and then we were able to access the cabin to quads and then on foot of course as as we know if nothing was found at the cabin but it was just one of the procedures that we use during the search to try to find any sort of structures that should be searched I first heard about Madison's disappearance justic basic couple days after she disappeared from co-workers I was some up Norris flying on a fire and they formed min texted me he told me that was a girl missing from Vanderhoof as soon as I came back we got phone calls from from the family and from the search parties if we were willing to help and and there was no question asked that myself and of course my company were willing to give airtime away I mean there was no question asked that we help you know was flying whatever else needed to be done yeah early on the first week or two we had use of a infrared camera and they would use it first thing in the morning when the ground was cold and they flew around certain areas areas of interest with this infrared camera looking for hot spots and then yeah we found other areas remote cabins and places that we'd end up going in and searching we covered them quite a big area I mean just for example to give you a perspective British Columbia is about the size of France and Germany together and we only have 4.4 million people living here and so this is a huge area and we covered basically roughly speaking 60 square kilometres and all the way from locust lake towards Fraser lake and then down from south of synced mountain towards four st. James one of the ways that we were able to thoroughly search were aerial searches which were conducted by ourselves we hired residents of the community who owned their own planes and helicopters etc we're able to go up on their own time and search unbelievably large area well basically and this is a map of central and southern part of British Columbia like Vancouver is down here and we have Williams Lake here Prince George and then Vanderhoof which is the geographical center of him this province here and the area that was a search basically goes from Vanderhoof north towards for st. James we went all the way over to Fraser lake we went down to the lakes called Finger Lake in tadig Lake and kind of a big circle back to cuckoo's lake and hogsback Lake is here and what we also did we did follow most of the streams they were all searched and the specific areas we looked at all the lakes the shorelines and that was the major area covered em in the helicopter search for Madison the challenge we face is that we know we're looking for persons so it depends on you know what the person was wearing when she was last seen and that's what we're looking for specific in our area here the bush is very thick grown so the challenge is to find that specific piece of clothes that we're looking for or the color so it's not something big that we look for it looks on something small from the air and that is the biggest challenge that we have you I first heard that Madison had went missing when I came home from work my wife was at home and she told me of the terrible news and I immediately got my boat and went out to the lake and just to offer some help in any way that I could the community support has been so amazing we've had people doing searches on their own Len is somebody that Matty used to work for he has a sporting goods store in town and he has his own sonar and Len was able to come out with his boat he came out on his own time his own initiative and searched the lake while we were waiting for the police and search-and-rescue this type of a sonar is a side scanning sonar it scans to the sides of the boat as opposed to directly underneath it it creates shadows behind the objects and by doing that it creates images of the objects so you can get some very detailed info as to what is on the bottom I've spent probably 10 hours on the water searching I was our relationship with the police has been pretty exceptional they've kept us in the loop as best they can there's obviously a lot of details that we'll never know we've pretty open lines of communication if anything that we hear or find out about we contact the police right away and they'll tell us you know what if there's any validity I don't believe for an instant that Mattie would run away from her family that she wouldn't want to come home to her family she has a family that loves her very much and I can say that something has happened that is preventing Mattie from coming home to her family and we're going to continue our investigation till we find out what happened to Madison's gone I think the RCMP have been very supportive of the community they have been very careful to make sure that this doesn't fall off the radar screen and as well the residents of our community understand that the RCMP are working on it very consistently and they still have a full contingent of investigators looking looking for Madison to have little information regarding the situation is very hard we see her face through all throughout town on the posters everybody I know has stickers on their cars but it just does seem like there's just no information we don't have answers at this point as to what happened to Mattie and then we currently seek any clues or information from the public and people out there to continue the investigation to find out what happened to Maddie the support of the community has just been incredible and it just goes to so many different levels of resources given to this search and one of the things to me that was just so incredible was after the initial two weeks you know to go back into to work and you know everyday life as much as you can you start hearing from other people that you know just took it upon themselves to go out onto these these back roads and places that maybe we would never have even thought of you know to find out that people had continued on from basically the Prince George side and made their way all the way from for Prince George to Hawks back down the blackwater you know on their own other people going up towards fort st. James towards Fraser lake doing the lakes there the logging roads there that the trails and and you know then bring it upon themselves to come back to the family and say you know just so you know we've been out in that area you know we used our weekends we use our vacation time we've we've decided that this year we're not going away we're going to stay in the area and head out into the the back woods and and just continue the search and that's to me is just an incredible sign of how incredibly supportive this community has been is your way Oh unbelievable I don't think you can put into words how great that communities been you know especially like the first couple weeks like the amount of people would take time off work and there'd be days where you'd be tired and like some days you'd want to maybe just sleep in a little bit but people would show up with a house like you know 7:00 a.m. ready to go and searchin and it didn't end there like it's it's been you know 2 years later there's still people kind of you know doing the same thing like people are always on the lookout I think we're a very close community we're community that hurts about for each other and so when you have a small community that senses the hurt that one family member has it's it's a really troublesome time and there's reminders every day that go along with that it seems when you lose one of your own you do try and band together and help and can't imagine that it would be your child so it it brings people closer it's the support that we've received what's it's what's gotten us to this point is that support that strength and people wanting this resolved it's just not something that should happen you it's pretty hard um hi loving Williams Lake which is two and a half hours south of Angier hoop so I mean we see Maddy's posters everywhere we go but I find when I draw it back to Bandar there's obviously it's just everywhere just a huge slap in the face when I Drive back here yeah you can't you can't drive through Vanderhoof without seeing her face at least once whether it be on the windows of the stores and the restaurants on a billboard like the multiple versions of the reward posters like they've evolved kind of and like you see them on so many cars our big thing is to keep the wareness of what's happened with posters we've done media events we have a reward we've offered just trying to keep the awareness of what's gone on we're on our way to pick up the t-shirts and the Polaroid posters hey Wayne hey how are you good we need to keep the awareness out there and one of the ways of keeping the awareness out there is we have hosted a poker ID for two years now because Maddie has been missing for just over two years our poker ride includes ATV riders horseback riders and walkers and we based it out at hogs back where Maddie went missing and we had a phenomenal amount of people out in the Hogs back area looking searching the trails for anything of madame this is your 100 Wayne oh that's all done perfect yeah it's kind of just like what Maddie's all about you know I kind of being outdoors whether it's like quadding or riding you know riding horseback or dirtbike whatever just being in the outdoors and it's kind of an opportunity for people to in the community to come out and kind of be on the lookout for Maddie poka ride came about as an event just something to keep the awareness up at the first anniversary most of the trail was already there but we had to make bridges and add some more stuff so the first polka ride that we did there was a lot of work making the trails it gets the community together and it gets pulls people in from the surrounding communities I think it helps with keeping people's spirits up into the station boxes that we have set up at all the different stations to be divided between the walkers the quads and the horse trails the full variety a deck of cards and we've had cards made up all with Maddie's pictures on them and we have a container that you put all the cards from and we have the reward poster on there and the fly maddie website we have good heavy-duty bug spray that everybody will be glad that we've had in here in the boxes and we have sunscreen we have garbage bags we have pens which we have had custom made with the fine Mady see a website again on there yeah so they're just about ready to go we just have a couple of people coming out now and we'll finish up the last of the station boxes to change the money would take a break we must you we've asked you to go to Ghana may stay way for the still big strong jaw just raise the guilt on your face the more of awareness you have it's basically like the Internet you pass one thing on to another and you may pass it at one person but that goes to millions of people when you see the fundraising the polka rides you know the awareness campaigns that have happened in the community they're all with one single mind and that is is to see Madison come home we can't just leave it rest like this it doesn't feel safe everybody's heartbroken Maddie made such an impact on so many people and continues to and we just really need her home we're on day 726 today and we're just doing what we can to keep the awareness out there because somebody knows something somebody knows where she is and how she got there and we need to find that out we need to find her and get her home tragedies affected us in some ways or a lot of most ways has brought us closer together but you know this has been our focus you know since Maddie's been missing is to bring her home I feel horrible that there's no trace of Maddie after two years and like I regret everything I should have stayed even if I was hurt in my day this something like this would have never happened all you always had friends that stuck together and you knew regardless that you were never left alone if I could go back in time I would change it all I would stay there maybe I could possibly have helped her I miss my friend the sadness and stress that it's caused it's just it's beyond belief beyond imaginable I think that the most important thing that has to happen now is that individual or individuals who have information or answers is to happen to Madison Scott need to come forward to the RCMP with that information so that we can find out what happened to Maddy doesn't matter how you get the information to us whether you email it whether you send it to Crimestoppers whether you put it in the mail in an envelope anonymously all we would like to do is get Maddy home safe with her family where she belongs if there's someone out there that knows what's going on with Madison or knows somebody that does they need to step up to the plate and this has gone on way too long this community has been so supportive to us people deserve answers we need to have Madison home what I would like to say to anybody who has information or is withholding anything is do the right thing and please come forward and tell us where Maddie is you know it's been a few years and we still know absolutely nothing you hear all these stories about people have been found years later still alive it's just yeah not knowing I mean in a small community like we have you shouldn't feel fear or feel the fact that anyone could go missing I think that she will come home one day there's there's been a lot of similar cases to this and eventually there is a happy ending a somewhat happy ending and when you love somebody this much you never give up there's no hope it's just fuel for us to keep searching to keep looking for Maddy hoping that we'll find the answer one day hope is her way home so keeping that hope is big you you you hmm you yeah we openly pay rent Johnny the burning Oh is this your way is your way is your way is your way is your way Oh

Channel: faithlovehope findmaddy

Views: 3,303,323

Keywords: Madison Scott, Missing, Teen, BritishColumbia, Canada, maddy, girl, teengirl, search, hope, faith, love, documentary, film, steve scouller, Scott, Madison, Northern, BC, young, findher, help, searchteam, RCMP, community, sad, Documentary (TV Genre), Sadness (Symptom), filmmaker, doc, news, story, hwy, family, action, seeking, information, case, unsolved, Unsolved Mysteries (TV Program), missing women, Vanderhoof, student, may28, hogsbacklake, tent, truck, faithlovehope, find, her, bring, home

Id: Xn0ROcjh7ys

Length: 53min 48sec (3228 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 08 2014