After 30 years, police still seek info on missing girl

Jo-Anne Pedersen disappeared from Chilliwack 30 years ago today. Witnesses last saw the 10-year-old at a phone booth at Watson and Vedder Roads on Feb. 19, 1983, at 8:20 p.m., from where Jo-Anne called her parents asking to be picked up because she was locked out of her house.

She was gone by the time her parents arrived at the phone booth.

Witnesses say there was a tall white man with “messy or wavy-style” hair in the booth with Jo-Anne, who police believe was trying to help.

The RCMP say that Jo-Anne’s mother, Angela Reilly, has never been the same since the event. She thinks about Jo-Anne every day, wonders what happened to her, and holds out hope that she is alive.

In the last five years, a man who claims he was a witness to events leading up to the disappearance sent three anonymous letters to the Chilliwack RCMP.

“The letter does contain information that we find significant, and that we would like to know more about,” Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth told The Chilliwack Progress in Sept. 2011.

The RCMP are still looking for this man, so that local police can talk to him.

“The police are still receiving information on this ongoing investigation,” said Corporal Tammy Hollingsworth in a press release.  “Investigators are hopeful that we will soon know the truth regarding what happened to Jo-Anne so we can give her mother and family closure.”

The RCMP request that anyone with information about the letters, the original man in the booth, or the investigation in general, contact Chilliwack RCMP Serious Crime Unit at 604-792-4611 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
