Willard McKay’s an amiable mainstay of Tatamagouche
Helicopter brought in to aid in search for missing 80-year-old
Willard McKay doesn’t drink but he’s the first to offer a lift home for a bar patron who’s had a few too many.
“It’s unusual not to see him in here,” said Chuck McDonald, acting manager of Ocean Lanes Bowling and Sports Bar.
Many Tatamagouche residents are finding it odd, not seeing the amiable 80-year-old around the community.
McKay was last seen leaving Ocean Lanes around 8 p.m., Friday. RCMP has issued a missing person’s bulletin and a search is underway.
That effort was intensified Tuesday morning with an RCMP helicopter that spent about four hours flying over the network of woods roads in the New Annan/Balmoral areas.
Const. Dal Hutchinson said that effort had to be discontinued because of the day’s low cloud cover but officers were also following up on “a significant number” of responses from the public regarding perceived sightings of McKay’s vehicle.
“We appreciate the public assistance,” he said.
McDonald, meanwhile, said McKay was a regular at the bar many evenings, especially Friday and Saturday, where he would sip on diet Pepsi and chit-chat with those around him.
“He doesn’t drink or anything so if somebody needs a ride he usually offers them a lift home. He will pretty well drive anybody, even if it was a bit out of his way,” McDonald said.
“I guess that’s part of the scare that anybody would have right now, not knowing what is going on.”
McKay is also known as a long-time support of the Brookfield Elks Sports Draw, for which he’s been selling tickets for years.
A familiar spot for selling tickets is in the Foodland parking lot where he’d sit in his grey van and wait for people to come out of the store.
“He generally stopped in at the Foodland parking lot at least once a day,” McKay’s friend Alan Fahey said. “Every time I drive by, I look in and see if his van’s there. It seems kind of strange you haven’t seen it there the last several days.”
Fahey can only hope McKay is found safe and sound.
A Facebook posting by McKay’s grandson Justin Archibald encouraged people to share the information in an effort to “keep searching and bring him home.”
“I personally have put 1,300 kms on my truck since Sunday evening, Archibald wrote. “…. If he’s on a main road I would think he would have been seen.”
Another area resident said concern for McKay was initially raised when he didn’t attend a friend’s funeral on Saturday.
The RCMP also said he has several medical conditions.
McKay’s van is a grey, 2008 Dodge Caravan with Nova Scotia license plate CAV 017.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the nearest police department, the Colchester District RCMP or Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers.