The friend of a missing senior who was last seen leaving a Jasper bed and breakfast is starting to believe the worst has happened.
“It’s really hard for all of us,” Jenny John, of Kamloops, said Monday.
May Milling, 81, was reported missing Wednesday after she left Jasper in her blue 2009 Buick Lucerne to visit John in Kamloops. She never arrived.
RCMP spent days searching the Yellowhead Highway by ground and air, to no avail. John said police even checked at hotels between Jasper and Kamloops but no one has seen Milling.
“There’s nothing. Nothing,” she said, adding police have promised to check the route again.
“She had food with her, and water, but she would have had to stop for a bathroom break somewhere.”
John has two scenarios about what might have happened to her friend. She said Milling might have swerved to avoid an animal on the road and ended up in a ditch or suffered a heart attack.
She said Milling, who lives in Gibsons, has a heart condition and requires medication, but had enough for the duration of her trip.
Milling left Gibsons Aug. 26 and headed to Grand Forks, Radium, Banff and then on to Jasper. It’s a journey she makes annually.
John talked to Milling while she was a guest at the bed and breakfast. Aside from a backache, her friend told her everything was fine, she said.
She described Milling as wise and congenial. “She had all of her marbles,” she said. Milling is a retired microbiologist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The two women met 38 years ago while playing field hockey in the Lower Mainland and became friends. John said they visit each other twice a year.
Milling was not married and has no children.
John accepts the fact her friend might not have survived a highway accident. At this point, she just wants to know what happened.
“It would be nice to know,” she said, adding she appreciates the effort RCMP have made to find Milling.
RCMP Sgt. Lane Jumaga said police have found no evidence that Milling made it into the Kamloops region. The search continues.
Milling's four-door sedan has a B.C. licence plate 147 LHF. Anyone with information is asked to phone Kamloops RCMP at 250-828-3000.
