Roy Henderson has been missing for 10 years, and for 10 years Tanya Meadus has been anxiously waiting to hear what happened to her beloved younger stepbrother.
“It’s crazy. You just think and hope that he’s going to call,” Meadus said, her voice cracking. “It’s just so strange, I just can’t even … I mean it’s still so hard even after this long.”
Meadus met Henderson when she was 12 years old, when their parents began dating. Henderson’s mother had died a couple of years earlier, and shortly after, his dad met Meadus’ mother and the two were eventually married. The two families then became one, and Meadus and her mother moved to Port Coquitlam to live with Henderson and his father.
“In school he was an honour roll student with straight As. He played soccer. He wasn’t very popular but … we were just kids. Back then (school) wasn’t so much about what it is nowadays. … Growing up, we were very close. We went to the same high school. We were two years apart. He had lots of friends.
“We did everything together. We would build forts together, we would go hunting in the bush together,” she said.
Henderson attended Kilmer Elementary, Mary Hill Junior High School, and Terry Fox Secondary School. The two siblings were close and spent a lot of time together as children and teenagers.
After graduation, Meadus said her brother had a couple of jobs, mostly notably as a cook at the Cat and Fiddle Pub and Earls, both in Port Coquitlam.
As her brother got older, Meadus noticed some changes in his behaviour. She believes he may have become schizophrenic but doesn’t believe Henderson’s doctor ever diagnosed him or prescribed any medication.
“I saw the signs and everything of it and after an altercation that happened at home, he went to go live with his grandfather in New Westminster.
“He got into some drugs and stuff like that. Nothing crazy, like with gangs or anything,” Meadus said. “He was just a good guy. He wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Meadus told The Recordthat her son, who was about nine years old when his uncle went missing, still asks about Henderson, and like her, he is left wondering what happened to his uncle.
“Regardless of what he was into, he’s still my brother and it’s just hard because … after all this time you still hope,” she said.
While Meadus still holds out some hope her brother will return one day, after this much time she believes it’s unlikely, but she still wants closure. She has spent the last 10 years searching for her brother, putting up flyers, participating in searches in the Downtown Eastside, even posting to Facebook, looking for any clue into her brother’s disappearance.
“Not that he was downtown, but just not knowing, with his mental health or the drugs that he started getting into, whether it would bring him down there,” she said, her voiced pained with exasperation.
Even after 10 years, the police aren’t any closer to finding out what happened to Henderson. The 29-year-old (now 39) had been living in New Westminster for less than two years before he vanished, and even then, police can’t pinpoint exactly where he was living when he was reported missing.
“The details are very hazy and very grey as to where he was actually living,” Sgt. Diana McDaniel of the New Westminster police told The Record.
Ten years later, the investigation is now in the hands of the department’s major crimes unit.
“They take over some long-term missing persons investigations, but there isn’t a tremendous amount of leads or anything to follow really, so this is sort of an effort to get it out there again just in case there’s a chance. There really isn’t anything that’s happened in the investigation, it’s just a matter of putting it out there again with the hopes of somebody identifying him,” McDaniel added.
Police have very few clues into what Henderson was up to at the time of his disappearance. There were some reports he might have been in the United States shortly before he vanished, but nothing was confirmed. Police are also unsure whether he remained in the Lower Mainland or left the area, but one thing is for certain, police aren’t giving up hope he’ll turn up one day.
“We’re looking for a person, and we’re hoping to find him well and alive,” McDaniel said.
As for Meadus, she just wants to find out what happened to her younger brother.
“I don’t think he’s here anymore, like honestly he always kept in touch with me no matter what and it’s just so strange, it’s like he disappeared. I don’t know, I don’t understand,” Meadus said. “...There’s absolutely no trace, it’s like everything just stopped.”
