Still missing after 20 years
Jim Mcgrath was a wanderer, but did he die of natural causes or foul play?
It has been 20 years since Jim Mcgrath of Patrick’s Cove went missing.
There hasn’t been a trace of him since.
The 72-year-old was wellknown to walk the Cape Shore area, a character of sorts, seen in the summertime walking briskly for miles in his rubber boots, cap and light-grey trench coat, toting a roughly hewn walking stick — likely a small tree or branch cut from the area around his camp.
His campsite was no picnic.
Mcgrath was a loner who chose to sleep in an old car wreck in a wooded area on the outskirts of Patrick’s Cove. The wreck, an old dark-coloured Lada, sat in a small clearing a couple hundred of feet or so from the road. He lived and cooked around and about the wreck.
There were dented pots and clothing hanging from branches, buckets and firewood scattered about, a makeshift table with dishes on it, well-worn pathways like rabbit leads in and around the trees and bushes.
When he arrived there in the spring, after spending the winter at a boarding house at Point Verde, near Placentia, a taxi would drop him off with his groceries and personal items.
From there he’d be seen all summer long walking the roads — those who knew him would honk their horns or stop for a quick chat.
There’s often a misconception about people like Mcgrath, that there’s something wrong, that a person doesn’t live like that, and doesn’t have family support.
But that was not the case with Mcgrath.
His family members may not have known why he lived the way he did, but they cared about him. He seemed happy to be doing what he was doing. Mcgrath going missing without any answers has left a long, painful hole in the heart of the family.
“My mother (Lizzie Connors) never got over her brother going missing,” Mcgrath’s niece, Virginia Connors, said. “My dad always said it changed her.”
Virginia’s sister, Agnes Auchinleck, added that their mother would often be heard over the years saying, “Poor ol’ Jim.”
Lizzie Connors died last June. Often over the years she would place pieces in The Telegram as both a tribute to her brother and reminding the public that he is still missing.
Mcgrath’s great-niece, Mallory Mcgrath, summed up the family’s feelings in a poem titled “The Wanderer.”
The first stanza: “He wandered alone on the roadside, a stout but staunch old lad, He lived the life of a nomad, but seemed happy with what he had.”
There has been much speculation over the years about what happened to Mcgrath.
Did the wanderer wander too far and fall ill, or suffer an accident? Or was there foul play? It depends on who you ask.
A massive search by the RCMP, the local ground search and rescue team, a helicopter, the Canadian Coast Guard, and relatives and friends failed to find him.
Rumours were rampant at the time, and even now resurface on Facebook, about what happened to Mcgrath. He was said to have carried his money on him — lots of cash in a sock tied around his neck.
Many feel he was targeted, robbed and killed for it.
But no one has ever been charged. No person or persons of interest were questioned, that the family knows of.
His nephew, Brendan Mcgrath, tends to think his uncle fell victim to crime.
He says if his uncle had a heart attack, or stumbled into a pond, he likely would have been found.
“I don’t understand how he wasn’t found one way or another,” Brendan Mcgrath said. “He was a strong man, fit for his age. He could walk to Placentia and back. So, I don’t think it was his health. I think Jim was made away with.”
In the days after Mcgrath went missing, Virginia and Agnes were among family members who searched the area around the car wreck and collected his personal belongings to keep for him. Virginia left a note in the car in case her uncle returned.
Virginia also kept detailed notes of those days.
She noted that his food hadn’t been touched. A loaf of bread was not even opened. His pills, his walking sticks and, most notably, a whistle that he always carried with him when he walked, were found near the car.
Agnes says those facts could mean something else besides foul play. Mcgrath had openheart surgery 10 years previously and had been taking medication since. She said he may have over-exerted himself carrying all his items from the side of the road up the hill to the Lada.
“It went through my mind a few times that he brought all his stuff up, probably made two or three trips, and was likely exhausted and maybe went to the river to wash his face or get some water,” she said. “He could have took a heart attack and fell in the river and was washed out to the ocean.”
The river was higher than usual that spring due to a heavy winter of snow and high water runoff.
Virginia, however, is still left wondering.
“It’s more comfortable to think the way Aggie is thinking, that he wasn’t made away with,” she said. “But I don’t really know.”
As for how much cash Mcgrath was carrying on his person, the family doesn’t know.
Virginia said he got his Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan cheques, and had few bills.
Before he came back to Patrick’s Cove, she said, he paid his last month’s rent in cash and paid the taxi driver.
There are other stories, as well, that tend to lead toward the probability he liked to carry cash with him.
Many years ago, Mcgrath came back from Labrador, where he was working, and was staying at a boarding house in St. John’s. He met a woman who stayed with him for the night. The next morning, Mcgrath woke up to find all his money gone.
The police were called and they tracked down the woman, and were able to get his money back.
“Stories like that lead me to believe he would be a person to carry cash on him,” Virginia said.
A statement from the RCMP last week said the investigation into the case remains open.
“It is regularly reviewed to ensure that everything that can be done is being done,” the statement reads. “RCMP NL recognizes the importance of closure for family members with missing loved ones who have not been found. The investigation into the disappearance of Mr. Mcgrath is certainly important to his family and to the RCMP.
“Multiple avenues of investigation were pursued in relation to the disappearance. Anyone having any information, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem, is asked to contact Placentia RCMP.”
On Thursday, a heavy, thick fog encompassed the Cape Shore area. The sound of the ocean in Patrick’s Cove was the only evidence it was there beyond the fog bank.
At the site of Mcgrath’s camp, things have changed in 20 years. The Lada — someone set it on fire about a year after Mcgrath went missing — now sits as a pile of rusted metal sinking into the soft ground. The metal pile is nearly hidden by tall alder bushes that have overgrown the clearing, and the forest floor has reclaimed Mcgrath’s footpaths.
The leaves are just budding on the alders, but will likely completely hide the wreck from the view of a nearby ATV trail in the coming weeks.
The only sounds there on Thursday were the wind lightly brushing the trees, and boots being sucked into saturated patches of moss.
But Mcgrath’s family members will not give up hope of learning what happened to him.
Virginia, Agnes and Brendan stood around the vehicle Thursday while Virginia read a prayer for her uncle and tied a tag to the car, a “Novena Prayer to St. Anthony of Padua.”
Saint Anthony is the patron saint of lost things.
“We’ll take all the help we can get,” Brendan said. “Even after all this time, he still deserves a decent burial.”
“We’ll take all the help we can get … Even after all this time, he still deserves a decent burial.”
Brendan Mcgrath Nephew of missing man Jim Mcgrath