26-year-old Emma Fillipoff disappeared in Victoria, British Columbia in November of 2012. Over eight years later, her family is still searching.
Emma was born on January 6th, 1986, in Perth, a small town near Ottawa in Eastern Ontario. The town was a close-knit community where neighbours are known to look out for each other, and take care of each other during the good, the bad, and the ugly times.
Emma’s family, which included herself, three siblings and her parents, James and Shelley, lived in a house that they built themselves. Emma was described as very active, sweet, kind, and quiet. In an interview for The Fifth Estate, Emma’s sister also described her as having a “magnetic, goofy personality”.
She took after her father’s artistic side, and engaged passionately in creative endeavours. She was well known for her art projects, and her photography. She was often seen with a camera in her hands, snapping shots of anything and everything that caught her attention. Emma was also a prolific writer, writing poetry and journal entries almost every day.
She was known for her easy-going nature; the term ‘free spirit’ never fit anyone as well as it fit Emma. She marched to the beat of her own drum. She was also known for going for walks everywhere – barefoot. Her feet were often bruised or bleeding from walking barefoot.
Emma earned a diploma in Ontario for photo journalism, and then went to British Columbia in order to earn her diploma in the culinary arts.
Emma was also fiercely independent, and had an extreme need for privacy. She kept to herself, and was often pursued by people who wanted more from her than she could give. She felt that she needed to get away.
In the fall of 2011, Emma, who’d been living with her father in Perth, returned to British Columbia, eventually working at the Red Fish Blue Fish seafood restaurant in Victoria, BC. The restaurant was on the harbour, where Emma also lived from time to time on a houseboat with a roommate.
On October 31st, 2012, Emma left her job, as the work was seasonal. She reassured her coworkers that she would be back in the spring, and seemed to be looking forward to returning to the job the following season.
On November 21st, 2012, Emma hired a tow truck to move her Mazda van from Sooke, to the Chateau Victoria parking garage. It is unclear whether or not the van was functional at the time, or why Emma hired the tow truck if it was.
Emma’s intense need for privacy also meant that her family was often unaware of Emma’s situation. They believed, from upbeat, poetic sounding emails she sent them, that she was doing well, and she was healthy and happy. However, they came to learn that Emma had been living off and on at the Sandy Merriman House women’s shelter. The shelter had a month-in-month-out policy. This meant that, since February 2012, Emma had been living one month at the shelter, and then one month elsewhere, before returning to the shelter.
While staying at the shelter, Emma kept to herself, was quiet, and kept her drapes closed. Staff at the shelter stated that Emma seemed paranoid, or frightened, but she never spoke of what, or whom, she was frightened of.
On November 23rd, 2012, Emma was seen at the Victoria YMCA signing up for a membership. Her visit was captured on security footage, which showed Emma hesitating as she left the first time. Within minutes, the footage shows Emma walking in and out of the YMCA six times. This, factored with her state of fear while at the shelter, led The Fifth Estate investigators to believe that Emma may have been avoiding someone, or she may have been fearful of someone. (I’m inclined to agree.)
During this week, Emma had phoned her mother numerous times, each time sounding more and more distraught. She asked her mother if she could come home. Her mother, Shelley, was ecstatic that her daughter wanted to return. Emma then asked her mother to come out to Victoria and help her wrap up loose ends. As soon as her mother would agree, and begin to make arrangements, Emma would call back and change her mind, asking her not to come.
Shelley hadn’t been aware, at the time, that Emma had been saying at Sandy Merriman House. When Emma finally told her, her last words to her mother before ending the call were: “I don’t know how I can face you”. This spurred Shelley into action.
She made plans to go to Victoria, and help her daughter. Shelley was worried that Emma’s mental health was suffering, and she wanted to bring her daughter home, where she would be safe, and receive care if needed.
On the morning of November 28th, 2012, Emma was seen on security footage at the 7-Eleven on Government Street. She bought a pre-paid cellphone, and then hesitated before leaving, looking all around her. Later that same day, Emma bought a pre-paid credit card for $200. Once again, she hesitated before leaving the store.
These purchases were very odd. Emma had never had a cellphone, and had no desire to ever own one, or use one. She was content using payphones, or the phone at the shelter. She also had a debit card on her with just under $3,000 in her account that she had access to.
It was known that she was saving up to go on a trip to Japan with her father. As loathe as she was to spend her savings, she had access to them. Why would she purchase the phone, and the pre-paid card? It was suggested that Emma may have made these purchases in preparation to run away. But where, and why?
At 6:00 PM that same day, Emma left the Sandy Merriman House, and hailed a cab. She asked the driver to take her to Victoria International Airport. However, she soon stopped the ride, and go out, stating that she didn’t have the money for the fare. Which, again, was odd, as she had her debit card on her, and the pre-paid card she’d purchased earlier that day.
Shortly after leaving the cab, Dennis Quay, an acquaintance of Emma’s, saw her walking, barefoot, in front of the Empress Hotel at around 8:00 PM. Seeing Emma barefoot was not unusual, but seeing her appear agitated was. Dennis stayed with Emma for a while, asking her if she was alright, before calling 9-1-1 for assistance. Victoria Police arrived at the Empress Hotel within minutes, and spoke with Emma for approximately 45 minutes.
They noticed that she was pacing by a crosswalk, but wasn’t crossing the street. She was looking all around herself, as if looking out for something or someone. They asked her, pointedly, about her mental state and wellbeing, about whether she wanted to harm herself, whether she wanted to harm others. She reassured them that she had no intention of harming herself or others, and that she was fine. She told them, point blank: “I’m going through some things right now, and just going for a walk.”
The officers decided that Emma didn’t seem to be a threat to herself or anyone else, and she didn’t seem to be experiencing medical or mental distress. Their hands were tied. They had no other choice but to write their report, and let her go. Dennis, by this time, had gone on with his evening, believing Emma would be taken care of by police.
At 11:00 PM that night, Shelley arrived at the Sandy Merriman House, looking for her daughter. She was told that Emma had left at 6:00 PM. Police met with Shelley at the shelter, and determined no one had seen Emma since 8:00 PM. Shelley described Emma’s odd phone calls, and staff at the shelter described her paranoid behaviour. By midnight, Emma Fillipoff was reported as a missing person.
Immediately, Shelley began canvassing the neighbourhood around the shelter and the hotel, looking for Emma. She made up posters, and handed them out to everyone she met. Shelley told The Fifth Estate that she believed she would find Emma within a week. Shelley ended up staying at a hotel in Victoria for just over 2 months searching and looking for Emma.
As Victoria Police were looking for Emma, they found her Mazda van at the Chateau Victoria parking lot. Most of her belongings, except for what she had on her, and in her backpack, were in the van, including her passport, a library card, a digital camera, clothes, a pillow, her laptop, and recently borrowed library books. Police speculated that Emma used the van to store her things, as she was living a rather transient lifestyle.
While looking through her laptop, police found her journal. She had alluded to feeling along and depressed, but she hadn’t expressed this to anyone. Emma chose to hide her pain, and didn’t seem to know how to reach out for help, or assistance.
By all appearances, it seemed as though Emma was planning on returning home to Perth, wanting to live with her mother until the spring when she could return for another season at the Red Fish Blue Fish restaurant. However, police cannot determine whether Emma ever made it out of Victoria or not.
Victoria police sent divers into the harbour three times in the weeks after Emma’s disappearance. Her body was never found in the harbour.
As they found the security footage from both the YMCA and the 7-Eleven, police began searching for the cellphone and the credit card. The company which provided the pre-paid cellphone determined that the phone had never been activated.
A while later, police found that the pre-paid card had been used to purchase cigarettes. The man who had made the purchase told police that he found the card on the road near the Juan de Fuca Community Centre. The area where the card was found was roughly 20 kilometres (or 12.4 miles) from where Emma had last been seen. The man was interrogated, and polygraphed. He was cleared of suspicion. A search of the area where the card was found turned up nothing.
Prior to leaving Perth, Emma had met a young man at a music festival. The man was immediately smitten with Emma, and wanted to get to know her better. They went on walks together – his idea of a date, Emma’s idea of making a few friend. When Emma told him she was leaving, he didn’t take the news well.
Months later, by coincidence, according to the man, he ended up working in Victoria, where he ran into Emma. Police investigated him thoroughly. A year after Emma’s disappearance, the RCMP, who were helping with the investigation, gave him a polygraph, which he passed. The man was ultimately cleared, despite how fishy his story seemed.
Shelley did not give up hope. Though he’d had to return home, she never gave up searching for Emma. She followed leads of her own, and canvassed around Vancouver, where a tip had stated that Emma may have been. Ultimately, Shelley reached out to the CBC, which prompted The Fifth Estate to begin an investigation of their own.
In the course of the media attention, a photo was brought to the attention of producers. The photo was of a woman, seen reading and writing, while sitting in a coffee shop. Emma was known to do just that, both back home in Perth, and around Victoria. For the first time in a long time, Shelley had hope.
However, a woman later came forward and identified herself as the woman in the photo. That woman was not Emma Fillipoff.
Another look at Emma’s laptop, journals, and poetry showed that she felt like someone had been following her – she felt like she was being stalked. A note found on her computer led police to investigate her disappearance as a potential suicide. The note began: “To everyone, from dead Emma”. However, Shelley was, and remains, adamant that Emma would never have taken her life. The Fifth Estate investigators also agree that the note does not look like a suicide note.
Though unlikely, according to Shelley, that Emma may have taken her life, it is a possibility that cannot be ruled out.
In May of 2014, the Campbell River Courier Islander reported that store owners in Gastown, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, saw a man acting strange. The man was in jeans, and a green shirt. He entered the store, with a crumpled up piece of paper in his hand. The piece of paper was one of Emma’s missing person posters. The man was agitated, and, according to the store owners, he said: “It’s one of those missing persons posters, except she’s not missing, she’s my girlfriend and she ran away ‘cause she hates her parents.”
This man has never been identified.
Emma Fillipoff was 26 years old when she disappeared on November 28th, 2012. Over 8 years later, Emma’s family and friends are still left with more questions than answers.
Anyone who has any information, or who has seen Emma Fillipoff should call the Victoria Police Department’s non-emergency line at 250-995-7654, or their local police department. Tips can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
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Sources:
Have you seen Emma Fillipoff? New photos released on 8-year anniversary of her disappearance – Ian Holliday – CTV News Vancouver Island
Finding Emma Fillipoff – Mark Kelley – The Fifth Estate
True Crime Garage podcast – Emma Fillipoff – Part 1 and Part 2
Disappearance of Emma Fillipoff Wikipedia page
I always wondered if the person Emma feared was in the police force. When the police talk to her that night she’s found barefoot, she never says she’s been followed or stalked or she’s waiting for her mom… nothing. If the person she feared was a policeman, that makes sense. Policemen visit shelters, deal with homeless complaints and towed vehicles so maybe 🤷♀️.
That’s a really good point! I hadn’t considered that.