Still looking for clues in the city's oldest missing persons case

June 12, 1966.

That’s when 27 year old Philippe Guérin went missing from the former Psychiatric Hospital at the north end of the city.

This is one of several unsolved missing persons cases the city is highlighting this year in hopes of solving the cases.

Dora Guérin (pictured above, centre), who wasn’t yet Philippe’s sister-in-law when he went missing, says there was never any closure for his parents or the rest of the family. “It was hard dying not knowing what happened to their son, there was never a closure.”

She points out five siblings remain and the oldest are in their 80’s, “They would like to know what happened to their brother.”

Detective Constable Roger Drolet says at 50 years, it’s the oldest missing person case on file that they have.

He says on top of the case being originally from the Widdifield Police Department, before annexation with North Bay Police, there are difficulties in just dealing with the age of the file.  “Philippe would be 77 years old today, so the staff people who would’ve been at the hospital at the time, they may have passed on by now. It’s very difficult to get any kind of information.”

The following description was provided by police:

Philippe Guérin was born on March 28th, 1939. Paralyzed by polio at the age of 10, Philippe walked with a limp. He is described as 5′-7″ tall, with a medium build, short brown hair, brown eyes, and he had no upper teeth. At the time he went missing, on June 12th, 1966, Philippe was a 27-year old patient of the Ontario Hospital, a psychiatric hospital that was located in the North end of North Bay and that has since been demolished. Hospital authorities reported him missing to the Widdifield Police Department via a letter of notification. In operation from 1958 to 1968, the Widdifield Police had yet to be annexed to what was then known as the North Bay Police Department.
The Widdifield Police followed up on a lead from a North Bay clergyman who picked up a hitchhiker matching Philippe’s description in the Sudbury area at Falconbridge. The hitchhiker, who the clergyman dropped off at the junction of Highways 17 and 11, south of North Bay, said he was heading to Sacré-Coeur, Québec. This lead met with negative results. Widdifield Police were never able to locate Philippe and the investigation, now with the North Bay Police Service, remains unsolved.

Anyone with information that may assist police with this investigation is asked to contact investigating officer D/Cst. Roger Drolet at the North Bay Police Service at 705-497-5555.