A year without Zack
It's been 12 months of heartbreak and hell for the family and friends of Zack Lefave
Abaseball ornament was hung on the family’s Christmas tree with Zack Lefave’s name on it. Nearby, he smiled at you through framed photographs. But there was no laughter, no hugs, no physical presence with Zack – only reminders that an entire year without him has passed.
For Zack’s family, it’s been a difficult, drawn-out year. At other times, it’s like it was “just yesterday" he went missing, his mom Lorna Lefave says.
Mostly, she says, it’s been “pretty much hell.”
“Everybody’s life goes on, but it just seems like your days run into other days and they’re not the same anymore,” she says.
Her son went missing in the early hours of New Year’s Day on Jan. 1, 2021 – just two days before his 21st birthday. The last official reported sighting of him was in Plymouth, Yarmouth County, at 12:15 a.m. as he walked along Highway 334 after having left a New Year’s party.
Those were long days in early January a year ago, as people searched for Zack and for answers. The community hall in Plymouth became ground zero for people’s hopes, optimism and heartbreak. His family held vigil inside the hall while also searching roadsides and wooded areas themselves.
Search and rescue teams from Yarmouth, Barrington and Clare scoured the area on the ground, grid by grid, while an RCMP helicopter provided eyes from above. A continuous convoy of ATVs drove back and forth as others in the community also took to the woods, fields, back roads and ditches searching for Zack.
Even after the official search ended, people kept looking.
Hours became days. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. And months became a year.
Throughout it all, the questions remained: Where is Zack? What happened to him?
Early on, a cash reward grew to $30,000 in the hopes it would lead to concrete information. The young man grew up in Yarmouth County and lived here when he went missing. He had also lived in Canning for around a year, working at Huntley’s Village Meat Market. Once back in Yarmouth, he worked at Dayton Red and White. Both places thought so highly of him as an employee that they contributed to the cash reward.
Zack’s photo could be seen
then – and can still be seen now – on missing person posters plastered throughout Yarmouth and well beyond.
A group page was created on social media, dedicated to finding Zack and bringing him home to his family.
Many people still make daily posts on Facebook about him, saying they won’t stop until he is found.
His cousin Kimberly Morton is among those keeping his name and face in the public’s view.
“Zack was a good man, a wholesome boy who is missed by so many people. He didn’t deserve what happened to him,” she says. “Our families and his friends don’t deserve to not know what happened to him or where he is. We need him home. My aunt needs her boy back.”
She says it is important to ensure that Zack is not forgotten. Over the past year, there have been countless pleas made for anyone with information about his disappearance – big or small – to share that info with the police. Morton says information can also be shared with herself and the family.
“Our inboxes are always open,” she says. “All we want is closure and to bring Zack home.”
The RCMP investigation remains active.
“We are asking anyone who saw him the night before or on that early morning who hasn’t already contacted police to please call Yarmouth Rural RCMP at 902-742-9106. No piece of information is too small,” says Cpl. Lisa Croteau.
“We want to thank all of those who have contacted police with tips and information over the last year,” Croteau adds. “Investigators have sought out and followed up on information and leads throughout the past year and continue to do so.”
Investigators from multiple areas and RCMP units have been involved in the investigation.
A week before Christmas, on Highway 103 in the Eel Brook area of Yarmouth County, the RCMP’s Underwater
Recovery Team was on the scene. Many held out hope this was connected to the missing person investigation, but the RCMP had contacted the family in advance, saying their operation was not related to Zack’s case.
People continue to pray for a break in this case.
“Someone’s poor decision has really ruined a lot of lives,” says Zack’s mother. “It makes you wonder what kind of people do that? They must be pure evil. And that’s around our community. We don’t know who we’re walking with every day. To do whatever was done, we can only guess. To take someone’s life, that’s cruel.”
But despite the cruelty of the situation, there has also been kindness. Zack’s mother, Lorna, and his stepdad, Darren Fitzgerald, say the community has been very supportive.
“People message. People are very kind and considerate and caring,” Lorna says. “People stop me in the grocery store that I don’t even know. I had this one lady in Superstore, I was walking around and I was thinking is she following me? She came up to me and said you don’t know who I am, but she hugged me and said a lot of nice things.”
There have also been awareness walks in the community, with the Lefave family and friends teaming up with the family and friends of Colton Cook – who was murdered in September 2020 – as justice is sought for both young men.
Other times, Zack’s stepdad says, people aren’t sure what to say to him and Zack’s mom, as people struggle with their words.
The couple’s lives have changed in another way over the past year. They opened a Pita Pit franchise in Yarmouth, which has kept them busy and has been a welcome distraction at times.
Still, the reminders of Zack are constant, whether it was any of the 'first' occasions without him over the past year, or just another of many ordinary days – although nothing feels ordinary anymore.
The holidays, his mom says, were empty.
Sitting in their home a few days before Christmas, she shared this memory of her son.
“Usually at this time of year, when he was little, he’d stay home one day from school and we’d have a ‘mommy and me day.’ We’d do the tree, or we’d watch TV, or just do whatever. He’d say, how about we have a ‘mommy and me day’ and he’d just stay home.”
The memory makes her both smile and cry.
“It’s been a rough year,” she says. “We just miss him so much.”