NEW TWIST IN DISAPPEARANCE
Mom of three went missing in 2007
The mysterious disappearance of Candace Shpeley just got a little stranger after a private investigator uncovered a student loan taken out in her name five years after she vanished.
Shpeley was 23 years old — with three young children — when she was last seen in Surrey on March 31, 2007. Her car turned up two weeks later in east Vancouver, but her body has never been found.
“How can someone get a loan in her name?” asked her father, Barry Shpeley. “Either she’s a victim of identity fraud or my daughter is still alive.”
A credit bureau record shows a student loan was taken out in Candace’s name in 2012 in British Columbia, and that someone made a payment on it in 2013, evidence Barry Shpeley is sharing with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.
“There should have been red flags when someone applied for that loan,” he said.
After new witness interviews, private investigators now believe Candace may have been involved in an ugly love triangle before her disappearance. Candace exchanged letters with several men who were incarcerated, her father said.
“I know multiple men had written to her from prison promising to be her sugar daddy,” said Barry. “One of them was planning on leaving his girlfriend and their child to be with my daughter.”
He gave those letters to police in 2007.
Without a body, theories on Candace’s disappearance have evolved over the years. Abbotsford police concluded she had met with foul play and referred the case to IHIT.
IHIT told the media in 2011 that police considered Candace’s disappearance a murder investigation and that Darryl Cole — a “person of interest” in the case — had died in prison while serving time for an unrelated manslaughter conviction. While they were seen together before her death, Candace had no apparent relationship with Cole, Barry said.
Then after a flurry of anonymous sightings in Chilliwack were posted to Facebook in 2014, Cpl. Dale Carr said police thought Candace may be being held against her will.
The credit bureau record could change the narrative again, said Barry.
How can someone get a loan in her name? Either she’s a victim of identity fraud or my daughter is still alive.
In order to obtain the student loan, the applicant must present photo ID at a Service B.C. office and have her identification crossreferenced with a social insurance number, according to Student Aid B.C. And if the loan was fraudulent, why did someone make a payment on it in 2014?
Family and friends maintain a website and a Facebook page dedicated to Candace’s memory and also to solicit sightings.
Because Candace hasn’t been declared legally dead, Barry has never sought compensation or benefits for her daughters who he has raised. Candace’s oldest daughter will turn 18 early next year. Candace’s son has been raised by his father.
“There’s been no support from anybody for these girls,” Barry said.