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Cousin of missing Squamish woman seeks closure

Jodi Henrickson went missing on Bowen Island in 2009
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Jodi Henrickson, who went missing on Bowen Island in 2009.

When Crystal Henrickson logged on to Facebook recently, a previous post popped up and brought back difficult memories. 

The post was from 2014, on the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of her Squamish cousin, Jodi Henrickson. 

“It popped up in my notifications that someone within my network had either shared it or ‘liked’ it,” she said. 

Seventeen-year-old Jodi went missing on June 20, 2009 while on Bowen Island. She was last seen walking in the early morning hours with her ex-boyfriend, Gavin Arnott, who at the time reportedly told police the two had argued and then gone their separate ways. About 20 teens attended a party with Jodi earlier that night, according to media reports. No charges have ever been laid in the case.

In March of 2010, RCMP announced they considered the case a murder investigation.

Henrickson was 29 at the time of Jodi’s disappearance and recalls the day her aunt, Jodi’s mother, filed the missing person’s report and she got the call. 

She soon found herself on the 10 p.m. evening news asking for help to find Jodi.

“In some ways it feels so long ago and in other ways not really,” she said from her home in Vancouver on Friday. 

Seven years later, Henrickson said the best-case scenario is that information comes to light about what actually happened to her cousin, she said. 

“This might sound weird or morbid, but that is the only gift we are ever going to get out of this… Someone, if you could please just give us that,” she said, adding the teens who saw Jodi that night, and perhaps had been vulnerable to peer pressure, would be in their mid-20s now. “Whatever you might have known, you could say it now; it has been long enough.” 

Cpl. Meghan Foster, with the Integrated Homicide Investigative Team (IHIT), said the investigation into Jodi’s case continues. 

“IHIT investigators continue to receive and follow up on tips received from the public,” Foster told The Squamish Chief in an email.  “Should anyone have information regarding Henrickson’s disappearance, they are asked to contact the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-4448.”

Henrickson said the memory that sticks in her mind is not from when Jodi was a teen, but instead from when the girl was nine-years-old and Henrickson was about 21. 

“I have this picture of Jodi and me from a Christmas from maybe 2000 or 2001,” she said. “That picture captures where Jodi lives for me. She’s not a 17-year-old to me.” 

 The disappearance still haunts her, Henrickson said and has been hard to cope with at times. 

She has not been able to bring herself to visit Bowen Island since she went to put up posters trying to find Jodi, she said, because she associates the island with bad memories.

She also finds herself feeling guilty for having moved on with her life since her cousin’s disappearance. 

“There’s some days when I don’t think about Jodi and that is like both relief and guilt all at the same time,” she said. 

Henrickson stressed what she goes through is nothing compared to what Jodi’s parents and brothers must endure.

“All of us, at the end of the day, we just want to know what happened,” she said.

Criminologist and long-time Bowen Island resident Neil Boyd has followed Jodi’s case closely and even wrote about it for Business in Vancouver in 2011. He said the case is still discussed on Bowen, though not as frequently. 

“It is still something people would like to see resolved,” he said. 

Boyd said someone may have had information relevant to the case, but not have felt comfortable coming forward. 

Fear is often a reason people remain silent, Boyd said. 

“Not just because they fear reprisals, but because they fear this will just somehow backfire on them; They are basically afraid of police or they are just afraid of putting themselves out there,” he said.

To provide info anonymously on the  case call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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