Caitlin Potts, a 27-year-old Cree mother from Alberta, was last heard from on Feb. 22, 2016. She was living in Enderby.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Victoria Love
June 19, 2021 - 9:00 AM
Caitlin Potts went missing five years ago and her family and friends still don’t know what happened to her.
They have theories. Many are based on the fact she’s one of five women who went missing from the North Okanagan around the same time. But theories don’t amount to much and other than classifying the case as a homicide, the RCMP has offered few details to base conclusions on.
That is just one of the reasons Victoria Love is organizing a search to be held in Enderby this summer and has hired investigators who are delving into Potts’s case.
She's passionate about the case, though she came to it from an unexpected position.
“At the beginning of the pandemic I made a TikTok account and I started doing videos about missing people and true crime,” Love said. “Then people started messaging me to do certain cases, saying that their mom or friend was killed, and a lot of people requested I cover the Caitlin Potts case.”
READ MORE: Missing North Okanagan woman's mom renews appeal for tips
As all this came together, she began to realize she wanted to do more, particularly when it came to Caitlin’s case. She was a 27-year-old Cree mother from Alberta, was last heard from on Feb. 22, 2016. She was living in Enderby, and dealing with a troubled and allegedly abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend when she went missing and something about it stuck with Love.
“So I randomly messaged Pricilla, Caitlin’s mom, and told her what I was doing,” she said.
They started speaking and from there Love’s become immersed in the case and the people closest to it.
“I never knew Caitlin but I feel now she was like a close friend,” she said.
“I feel extremely attached to Priscilla and that Caitlin. I put up posters around Edmonton the other day because I know she had time here and, I am not religious, but I feel like she was watching over me the whole time.”
Others want answers too and they will be among those who gather in August, including Please Bring Me Home, a non profit that helps people find closure or missing people. Love contacted them and said their goal is to find the missing and bring them home to their family and friends.
“I am also working on hiring a search and rescue team and hopefully they will have dogs out there with us as well,” she said.
Love said she doesn’t want to offer specifics on which sites will be searched but that will emerge as time goes on. Also, that the effort will get underway between Aug. 9 and 20.
“Enderby is massive and that’s the really hard part of it, especially when you consider how forested it is,” she said.
“That’s why I want people to know, I created a group for the search people can join if they want to help.”
She thinks that eventually if they keep the pressure on, something has to give and said that it needs to.
“Priscilla wants answers so badly, and I want to help her because she deserves to know what happened,” she said. “People are walking around and they know something. I want them to say something for Priscilla and I want to make sure that people don’t forget about Caitlin.”
Caitlin, then 27, was last heard from on Feb. 22, 2016. She was reported to the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP as a missing person on March 1, 2016.
RCMP say criminality was involved and therefore the RCMP Southeast District Major Crime Unit became involved and ultimately took over the file.
In April of 2017, investigators released a clip captured from video surveillance at the Orchard Park Shopping Centre on Harvey Avenue in Kelowna. The video surveillance footage showed Caitlin as she entered the Hudson’s Bay store on Feb. 21, 2016. Since then, there’s been nothing.
“Over the past five years Major Crime investigators have received, analyzed and investigated 25 public tips and pursued hundreds of investigative leads in the case,” Supt. Sanjaya Wijayakoon, Operations Officer of the BC RCMP Major Crime Section said in a February press release.
“Although Caitlin has not been found yet, the Southeast District Major Crime Unit remains committed to finding out what has happened to Caitlin so that we can provide answers to her friends, family and loved ones.”
As with all investigations, our officers are committed to following any information that may lead to answers as to what has happened to Caitlin. We are continuing to look for new information and ask that anyone with any information on this case to immediately contact the Southeast District Major Crime Unit information line at 1-877-987-8477.
Or if you would prefer to remain completely anonymous, you can share your information with BC Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-8477.
The family has set up an email at findcaitlinpotts@gmail.com also. To join the search, Love has set up a Facebook group that people can join to learn more.
Find past stories about Caitlin Potts here.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Kathy Michaels or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2021