I gave a ride to a man who went missing. That chance encounter has stayed with me
CBC
This First Person article is the experience of Yassir El-Tahan, who lives in Bauline, N.L. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
On the morning of Aug. 22, 2015, the sun was shining, with not a hint of wind. I decided to take advantage and head to my favourite pond, just outside St. John's, for a swim. I usually take my bike, but I was in a hurry that day, so I hopped into my Jeep and took a narrow trail that had been carved out in the woods.
When I was deep into the trail, I saw someone off in the distance walking toward me. It's not uncommon to see people along that route as quite a few use it for mountain biking and dog walking, but as I approached the man, something told me to stop.
After a brief chat, I learned he was not familiar with the area, so I offered him a ride to the pond where I was headed. He accepted and away we went. It was about a seven-minute off-roading adventure from there to the pond. I don't remember much of the conversation, only that he said he wanted to get away to "clear his head."
"Well," I said when we arrived, "this is one of my happy places, enjoy!" I went for a quick swim, bid farewell, and went on my way.
Two days later, while eating lunch at work and scrolling on my phone, I saw a CBC News story about a missing man Jonathan Hannaford. My jaw dropped when I saw the picture — it was the guy I had dropped off at the pond on Saturday.
I called the police, and shortly afterward they were at my workplace taking a statement. One of the main questions was whether he had anything with him when I picked him up. I couldn't recall exactly, but I did know that in no way was he equipped to spend a couple of days in the woods.
It was then that I realized that not only was I the last to see a missing person, I had actually driven him deeper into the woods where he disappeared.
With the information I provided, the police intensified the search. Search and rescue crews were brought in. There were people on ATVs, on foot, in helicopters as well as drones overhead. I joined a Facebook group that Jonathan's father, Brian, had started to help find his son.
Shortly afterward, Brian offered a reward to help locate his son. He explained that his other son, Christopher, had gone missing during a camping trip in British Columbia four years earlier. It was Jonathan who travelled there to identify his brother's body, which had been found in a lake. Jonathan had been battling anxiety ever since, said his father, who also mentioned that his son had left a note in his car, which had been ditched on the side of the road.
In an interview with The St. John's Morning Show, Brian named me as the last person to see Jonathan before he went missing.
I immediately began receiving messages from his family and friends on Facebook and learned more about Jonathan, including that he had uploaded a song to YouTube that he wrote and dedicated to his son. The song's chorus went: "Son, be strong if I go / Hear this song and you'll know / I need you to know that I love you."
Things were not looking good.
Jonathan's family and friends asked me to take them to the area where I had dropped him off, but I politely declined, telling them I didn't want to interfere with the search team's operations. The reality was that I found myself in a bit of a dark place through it all.
