Six weeks after a mentally ill Regina woman disappeared, relatives are pleading with
western neighbours to bring her home.
“She could have gone that way — all things are possible right now,” Ryland Walters-Firnesz said in a public plea to help recover her missing mother.
Though Carlene Walters didn’t retain any lasting physical effects from a car crash in September, the 53-year-old was never the same, relatives say. She became anxious, depressed, and couldn’t sleep. Within a few months, she was hospitalized multiple times and required round-the-clock supervision.
Severe social phobia turned looming medical appointments terrifying, Walters-Firnesz said.
She’s certain an afternoon visit to the doctor on Dec. 30 was reason enough for her mother to flee.
Save a sighting from a Regina transit operator that day, nobody has seen Carlene Walters since.
“It’s very unlikely she’s alive right now. I think she just got caught in the elements.”
Police have contacted homeless shelters in both Edmonton and Calgary, with no sign of the missing woman.
Scared, seeking help, Walters could have set her sights on Calgary, home to one of her sisters.
Since the accident, Walters has fled multiple times, her daughter said.
“She would say she’s ‘heading out of town.’ But she didn’t know why, or where,” Walters-Firnesz said. “Past behaviour predicts future behaviour.”
Relatives have contacted RCMP detachments in communities of all sizes. Her face plasters bus shelters and massive billboards in Saskatchewan.
A Facebook site with over 10,000 members has been created in an effort to locate her. Over 72,000 posters have been distributed, Walters-Firnesz said, adding truckers have blanketed routes on major roads through Alberta.
“We need, need the public’s help because we can’t do this by ourselves,” Walters-Firnesz said. “It’s bigger than all of us.”
