A group of volunteers with cadaver dogs review the 6-year search for Shelley Desrochers in London, Ontario. – London | Globalnews.ca

The search for a London Ontario woman who went missing in 2016 is being reviewed by a group of volunteers who use dogs to search for bodies at specific locations in the London area.

Shelley Desrochers, 42, was reported missing to police on the afternoon of January 21, 2016 and was last seen in the area of ​​Lorne Avenue and English Street weeks earlier on January 2, 2016.

“Many people knew Shelly throughout inner city London, and to go from being an active member in that kind of community to just nothing and not being seen or heard from anywhere is worrying,” said Nick Oldrieve, Founder and executive director of please take me home.

Please Bring Me Home is a nonprofit volunteer group that works with families of missing persons and law enforcement to gather information to help locate missing persons.

The organization was founded in 2018 in Owen Sound, Ontario to help collect new information on cold cases that people are no longer talking about and has since grown to encompass all of Canada. It is made up of retired police officers, private investigators, and ordinary citizens.

Oldrieve said that while they keep the areas and dates they search private, they found some areas of interest with the cadaver dogs after the first day.

“We will work to further examine those locations. Nothing immediate, like you couldn’t see any evidence, but the dogs were indicating an area, which means you have to look closer.”

Cadaver dogs are dogs that have been specially trained to locate human remains and decomposition.

The group is looking specifically at three areas of interest.

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“These three areas are areas that are three completely different theories, three completely different groups of suspects. So we’re not just hyper-focused on one theory. We focus on many at the same time to make sure we don’t get tunnel vision,” Oldrieve said.

He told 980 CFPL that the next steps are to notify police in a report and then have the Please Bring Me Home forensic anthropology team come within the next week to examine the locations more closely.

“All we know for sure at this point is that we were taken to this area to search for Shelly Desrochers, and cadaver dogs indicated areas of interest that need to be looked at more closely. We don’t know if it has anything to do with Shelly, we don’t even know if it has anything to do with a current missing person or a deceased person, so we adjusted our expectations,” Oldrieve said.

“It could be a big break in the case, or it could be absolutely nothing more than a discredited area.”

A posting on the Please Bring Me Home website said that Desrochers had fallen on a difficult time in his life and battled substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder before disappearing.

“There have been many theories about Shelley’s disappearance, including running away to start a new life, accidental death, and that she encountered foul play due to her ‘high-risk lifestyle,’ but these are just theories,” the statement read. publication. .

The website said police recovered Shelley’s purse at a house known for high drug activity, and her health card was found in the parking lot of an outpatient clinic on Hamilton Road three years after she went missing.

“It wasn’t out of place for Shelly to be a bit quiet for a couple of weeks when no one heard from her. What’s out of line is, you know, her belongings not being found with Shelly. That’s where things really took a turn, where you started to recognize that something had probably happened to Shelly,” Oldrieve said.

At the time she was reported missing, Desrochers was described as Caucasian, five foot two, 130 pounds, with hazel eyes and long brown hair. Police say she had a distinctive walking style, described as “pigeon-toed”.

Desrochers also had several visible tattoos, including a rose, a heart, and a blue bird.

In November 2021, London police said they found a person linked to Desrochers and another missing woman, Kathryn Bordato, 44, who was last seen in July 2009.

Police did not provide further details at the time but said the person, who has since died, was closely monitored and is believed to have withheld information from police.

Global News has contacted Desrochers’ family and London police for comment.

Anyone with information about Desrochers’ disappearance can share it with the group on their website or by contacting the London Police TIP line at 519-660-5842 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222. -8477.