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The original was posted on /r/unresolvedmysteries by /u/AlfredTheJones on 2024-01-04 19:58:13+00:00.
Hello everyone! I wanted to thank everyone for the outstanding attention my last writeup about Nefataree "Neffy" Bartell's case recieved, just wow! I'm hoping that Neffy's story will stay with some of the readers, and wouldn't it be cool if it helped with getting her case solved? But I digress.
Today I once again wanted to write about a disappearance where it's unknown what happened to the woman who went missing.
BACKGROUND
Laura Huebner was 45 when she went missing from Nanaimo, Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. She was, however, originally from Calgary in Alberta, Canada.
Before she disappeared, she was working three different jobs, her mother died just a few months earlier, and she was still fatigued after the COVID pandemic- It's no wonder that Laura decided to take a break and go to Victoria.
Laura worked in costumes and was very passionate about her job- Danika Wright, her friend of over 20 years, said that Laura was excited to be back from her break to work on a movie gig this summer. Danika says that, to her, this means that Laura wasn't intent on disappearing and leaving her old life behind.
Danika described Laura as "(...)high energy, really motivated and driven. She is so passionate about fashion and all the things that go with it".
DISAPPEARANCE
Laura was reported missing on the 29th of April, but she was last seen on the 24th, when she arrived at the Victoria International Airport from Regina through Saskatchewan. Laura wanted to travel to Nanaimo next; At first it was reported that Laura went there to see her friends, but later on it was revealed that her goal was to meet up with a man she met online.
Harry Huebner, Laura's father, said that she had booked a flight back home for the 28th, but she never boarded it.
During her stay, on the 25th, Laura sent Harry a photo taken on a boat. Laura's friend said that the man she met online offered Laura a date on his sailboat. After Laura was reported missing, Harry posted the photo online; Many people said that it looks like the photo was taken in Nanaimo. On the 2nd of May, a boat fitting the description was seen in Nanaimo docked near an RCMP vessel after it (the sailboat) was towed away.
During the investigation, RCMP didn't want to share if the towed boat has anything to do with Laura's case. All they've said was that they believe that she was in the Nanaimo area as of 24th.
The family said that it is out of character for Laura to go on without contacting her family for so long.
CONCLUSION
On the 3rd of May, news that a body washed at Protection Island in Nanaimo harbor sparked interest, as people wondered if it might belong to Laura. The body, however, belonged to a man who fell into the water on the 11th of April after a drunken argument with a woman who lived on a sailboat with him.
And that's sadly all that we know about Laura's case. I do certainly think that the man she was meeting with has something to do with her disappearance- the most obvious answer is that he killed her, perhaps on the boat, and hid her body, maybe tossed it into the lake. If the RCMP got the right boat and searched it, that must mean that Laura's body wasn't there, or at least it wasn't there permanently- the boat could've still been used to transport it. It's strange to me that nobody close to Laura seems to know anything about that man- did Laura never share even his name? I understand that she's an adult and is entitled to her secrets, but if she told Danika that she was meeting him and getting onto his boat, why didn't she say what was his name?
I don't know, I don't want to judge people in my writeups and I'm mostly speculating, but Laura's behavior seems a bit... Reckless? Meeting a man online, flying to meet him and getting on his small boat without saying anything specific to friends or family? This doesn't seem very safe. Again, I don't know, maybe Laura was that kind of person that rushes into things without thinking about them, or maybe she was in love with him and people in love do crazy things... Depending on what kind of person Laura was, this can be nothing new to her or potentially a sign of mental distress.
Other than that, I suppose that there's a chance that Laura was overwhelmed in her old life and decided to voluntarily disappear- she did seem to lead a taxing life and went through several hardships one after another, so maybe she saw escape as an option? Maybe she's living with the mysterious boat owner?
There's also a possibility of suicide, since that's always a possibility. Again, maybe she was exhausted from all the work and going through grief, plus it seems like COVID had some impact on her... She was in an unfamiliar place, which also sometimes impacts people who are in a bad frame of mind and pushes them towards behaviors they wouldn't exhibit at home, with friends and family around. Again, all of this is just speculation.
Laura Huebner was 45 when she went missing, so she would be about 46 now. She was a white woman, 5 ft 8 in (172 cm) and 140 lbs (63.5 kg), with blond hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a white jacket and a white hoodie. If you have any informations about Laura's disappearance, contact Nanaimo RCMP non-emergency line at 250-754-2345, file number #2022-14432.
SOURCES:
- vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca
- victoriabuzz.com
- vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca (includes the photo Laura sent to her father)
- checknews.ca
- timescolonist.ca (the man found at Protection Island)
- ckom.com
Laura's websleuths.com thread.
EDIT: Laura's age was at first incorrectly stated to be 47 when it was, in fact, 45.