THE SEARCH FOR GALGANOV
New lead in case of Montrealer missing since September
Jesse Galganov’s mother will be flying to Peru next week to help in the search for her missing son after new information was discovered in an area where he was last seen.
Galganov seems to have vanished without a trace. No one has responded to the family’s reward offer, now at US$30,000, to find him. The authorities suspect a criminal act is behind his disappearance early last fall.
His mother, Alisa Clamen, told the Montreal Gazette said she is hoping for a miracle.
“But I am preparing myself for the worst. The fact that nothing has been found, not a single item, is indicative to them of something criminal.”
The 22-year-old left Montreal in September for what was to be an eight-month backpacking trip through South America and Southeast Asia.
After spending a few days in Lima, he texted his mother on Sept. 28 saying he would be out of contact for a few days because he was planning a four-day hike on the Santa Cruz Trek, a popular route through a mountain range in the Andes.
His 23rd birthday was in February.
Clamen plans to participate in a search May 15-17 with about 80 local police from Huaraz and nearby villages. Two members of the Canadian embassy will be on hand to “observe and liaise,” Clamen said.
In October, frustrated with local police efforts she deemed to be less than diligent, Clamen hired an elite Israeli team, Magnus International Search and Rescue. It has sent several drones into the area, she said, and interviewed everyone connected with Jesse’s trek.
“They will find him,” Clamen said Thursday.
A separate search spearheaded by Jesse’s father, Todd Galganov, who went to Lima in October, is to include remote villagers living near the trail, said Rex Broekman, editor of the Huaraz Telegraph in Peru.
Last week, Broekman said he acted as a translator for the father during a meeting with the former president of an agrarian federation, Carlos Milla, who knows the leaders of these local communities, some of which are no more than a collection of five houses.
“(Milla) took flyers to the meeting and some people had never heard of the case, which is strange because this is the area where Jesse went missing,” Broekman said.
Milla helped unite villagers reluctant to speak to local police to participate in a search covering new ground that hasn’t been explored yet.
“Even if villagers saw him, they might not have shared this information with police because they don’t trust them,” Broekman said. “They have their own community laws and leaders.”
Galganov’s disappearance has baffled authorities, and theories abound about what might have happened.
One unlikely theory suggests that he simply left for the jungle despite Peru’s unpleasant rain and freezing weather in this remote region.
Another scenario suggests Galganov suffered from acute altitude sickness, tried to find shelter or a place to sleep and then fell into a crevice.
Or that Galganov blacked out, then got robbed and dumped somewhere.
“But this is pure speculation,” Broekman said.
What is known is that the initial investigation was hampered by delays. The mountain search team, a department of Peruvian national police that covers remote areas, wasn’t informed that the young Canadian had gone missing for nearly three weeks.
For some reason, Galganov had apparently gone into the park without registering his presence.
Surveillance footage shows him getting off the bus in Huaraz. But it was not until the Magnus team located two French hikers who had camped beside Galganov on the trail on Sept. 30 that his presence on the trail was confirmed.
The men reported Galganov had arrived at the campsite late that evening because “he had got a little lost or disoriented.”
Reached in Lima, Galganov’s father said no family should go through the pain of losing a son.
He condemned the national park’s lack of guards and satellite phones.
He also said he is planning to start a foundation in his son’s name to fund simultaneous marches of awareness starting this Mother’s Day (May 13) in Toronto and Montreal, as well as in Peru, Florida and New York.
As for Clamen, this will be her third trip to Peru since her son went missing. She will be hiking the same trail as her son.
She’s pinning her hopes on the new intelligence Magnus unearthed, which is “Jesse’s exact location at the last point of known contact ... his pace and his direction,” she said.
Peruvian forces co-ordinated by Magnus are to comb the eastern side of the trek called the Punta Union next week.
There’s a possibility Jesse is still alive, she said.
But Clamen, who has started therapy with a professional who also lost a son, believes nothing would have kept her son from getting in touch with her.
“As a mother ... I have hope of finding my son’s body,” she said. “My goal, simply put, is to find my son and bring him home. No matter the result.”
For more info or to donate to the effort to find Jesse Galganov, go to gofundme.com/helpfindjesse or missingchildrensnetwork.ngo/ jesse-galganov-fund/