‘I pray you relent’
Cortney Lake’s aunt pleads for someone to come forward with information
Glenda Power, aunt of Cortney Lake, who police believe was murdered after her disappearance June 7, tweeted another heartfelt plea for someone with information to come forward after an intensive search by police and ground search volunteers Friday and Saturday in the area of the Smallwood Farm property near Bellevue Beach.
Police and ground searchers combed the area with more than 100 ground search volunteers from various areas in the province. At one point, it seemed briefly that something had been found, but on closer investigation the search proved fruitless.
Police said the search will continue at a future date, weather permitting.
Power tweeted photos of the massive search and said: “This. Our family waits, stomachs in knots, hearts hurting. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the searchers who are on the ground looking …
“To those who have withheld info, your callous disregard for our suffering is unfathomable. I pray you relent.”
Power, along with another aunt, Donna Walsh, has been instrumental in organizing citizen searches in various areas since the 24-year-old Lake’s disappearance. Lake had a sixyear-old son. She has been a frequent spokeswoman for the family at public events and in the media.
Philip Smith, Lake’s former boyfriend is a suspect in the case, but was not charged.
Lake was last seen on Michener Avenue in Mount Pearl getting into Smith’s truck. Smith committed suicide in a wooded area near Bellevue Beach. His body was discovered Nov. 1.
Despite the slight mist and sporadic fog patches, the ongoing search for the body of Cortney Lake was in full swing Friday and Saturday as about 120 searchers combed the area around the former Smallwood Farm property at Bellevue Beach, a little over an hour’s drive west of St. John’s.
At the end of two days searchers had nothing to show for the massive effort. But police said the search is not over, and they will be back.
The area is just off the Route 201 exit into Bellevue Beach from the Trans-canada Highway.
On Saturday media waited patiently behind the trio of orange cones placed at the entrance to the property a few feet away from the Rovers Ground Search and Rescue checkpoint truck.
Cameras could be heard clicking and rolling as searchers and several RNC officers riding off-road vehicles crested a hill by an adjacent home on the property. They parked vehicles overlooking the foggy coastline and went into a wooded area with shovels and spades.
The wooded area was by marked by fluorescent ribbons tied to the trees and shrubs.
After some digging with the small spades, a mini investigation was conducted. Then searchers left moments later and returned to their quads and ATVS.
They crossed the dirt road to another grassy area and searched there, marking the area with orange ribbons and moved on to another area beyond range of vision.
They were searching a 13-acre area on the farmland hoping to find the remains of Lake, 24, who disappeared June 7.
She was last seen around 7:30 p.m. that evening getting into a black pickup truck on Michener Avenue in Mount Pearl driven by her ex-boyfriend Philip Smith.
Smith’s body was found early on Nov. 1 in a wooded area behind his father’s cabin at Bellevue Beach.
The 25-year-old Smith, who was the only and primary suspect in the disappearance and murder of Lake, committed suicide.
Along with police officers, Ground Search and Rescue searchers from the Central Avalon Holyrood, Rovers, Wolverines, Triple Bay Eagles and Burin Peninsula personnel conducted the search shoulder to shoulder at the Smallwood Farm property.
“Hopefully we can bring her home,” Newfoundland and Labrador Search and Rescue Association president Harry Blackmore on Friday,
This past weekend’s search for Cortney Lake was the eighth since her disappearance and most extensive to date.
The search resulted from new information that the RNC recently received, RNC Sgt. Didham said, but he was unable to elaborate as it’s still an ongoing active investigation.