NEW GLASGOW – Four decades on, the search for Lynn Oliver continues.
On Aug. 25, the 40th anniversary of the day she vanished, a group of between 40-50 people met at Quality Cleaners in New Glasgow – where Oliver had been employee at the time of her disappearance – and walked to a small memorial set up on the Samson Trail, on the west side of New Glasgow.
Organizers are hopeful that any attention brought to the cold case might help to provide some answers.
“It went back in the news,” said Joy MacKeigan, who organized the walk.
“Someone who holds that one piece of information might come forward. It’s a stretch, but it’s a hope.”
On Aug. 25, 1979, just before noon, Oliver, who was then then 22 years old, left work on her lunch break and did not return. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
She is a caucasian female; standing 5'5" in height and weighing approximately 105 pounds when she disappeared. She has green eyes and brown hair.
She left behind a young son, Jeff.
“I’m organized this for Jeff, because he’s struggled for forty years, not knowing,” said McKeigan, a roommate of Jeff Oliver’s in Halifax.
“I wanted him to know she has not been forgotten.”
Since she went missing, there has been no activity in her bank account, MSI account or with her social insurance number.
Delaney Chisholm, who retired a few years ago as New Glasgow Regional Police chief, was a young constable on the department when Oliver disappeared. He was part of the detective division at the time, assigned to the case with other officers.
He walked with the group on Sunday and said a few words afterward.
"When a police officer retires, there’s always a case that kinds of haunts him, and that’s my case,” Chisholm said in an interview with The News. “I think about it all the time, I drive by that memorial on Stellarton Road every day.”
Police had a prime “person of interest” in Oliver’s disappearance (that person is still alive and living in the Halifax area), but without a recovered body, a known crime scene or physical evidence, the case could not be moved forward.
“She had been in an abusive relationship and had been the victim of domestic violence. He remains today, a person of interest.”
Chisholm said he regrets not being able to offer physical evidence, but hopes one day the Lynn Oliver case will be solved, to bring closure to her family and friends.
REWARD OFFERED BY PROVINCE Of NOVA SCOTIA
The Government of the Province of Nova Scotia is offering rewards of up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the disappearance of Lynn Adel Oliver.
Any person with information regarding the person(s) responsible for the disappearance of Oliver should call the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program at 1-888-710-9090.
The reward is payable in Canadian funds and will be apportioned as deemed just by the Minister of Justice for the Province of Nova Scotia. Employees of law enforcement and correctional agencies are not eligible to collect the reward.
