#video #Made in Chelsea - Season 31 - Episode 01
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:29The first phone call I received from Emma was on a Friday, it was in the middle of the
00:00:36night. I had just had a bit of a nerve-wracking conversation with one of my other children
00:00:47who was having a rough time. So I was already stressed and finding it difficult to get back
00:00:59to sleep. As a matter of fact I couldn't go back to sleep.
00:01:05So when the phone rang in the middle of the night again, I just assumed it was my other
00:01:13child calling again. And it wasn't, it was Emma. It was Emma calling. She was crying and
00:01:28she was saying that she wanted to come home. Could she come home? I said, Emma, you have
00:01:38a home. This is your home. This will always be your home. I was trying to calm her down
00:01:48because I wouldn't say she was hysterical but she was crying a lot. She was really, really
00:01:55distraught. And I wanted to calm her down. So I said, when we get off the phone, Emma, I can't
00:02:02wait to go tell Oscar that you're coming home. Oscar was the one that she loved the most out
00:02:08of the three brothers. And she said, through tears, she said, you don't have to do that.
00:02:17Oscar will already know. It was very Emma. It was very Emma for her to say something like that.
00:02:33I resisted crying on the phone because I didn't think that would be of help to Emma. I wanted to
00:02:39cry.
00:02:42I did not. I stayed up the rest of the night.
00:03:09The next morning, I was supposed to tutor a student. But because of that phone call,
00:03:16and I had a feeling I would hear from Emma again and soon, I asked the father that he bring
00:03:28his son here
00:03:28to tutor. And when they arrived for the tutoring session, the phone rang again. And it was Emma.
00:03:39And so I indicated to the father that there was an issue. And so he took his son and said,
00:03:46never mind, you know, we'll, we'll do this again next weekend.
00:03:53So I spoke to Emma. She wasn't in tears, but she was very distraught. I could tell that there was
00:04:00something
00:04:01very, very wrong. But I didn't know what and I couldn't ask her because I knew she wouldn't have
00:04:06vaulted and I thought it might alienate her to some extent and push her away. So I didn't ask what
00:04:11was wrong.
00:04:13I said to her, I said, I've booked a ticket to come to Victoria to see you. And she said,
00:04:22no, no, no,
00:04:23don't come. Don't come. I don't need you to come. I just needed to talk to you. Please, please don't
00:04:29come.
00:04:29Don't come. So respecting that wish against my better judgment. I canceled my flight.
00:04:51The next phone call was Sunday. And we were back to she wanted to come home.
00:05:00Only this time she added that she needed help to come home. She said, I can't do it on my
00:05:06own. She said, I have a
00:05:07van that I need to sell or get fixed up. Maybe, maybe I could drive it back. Maybe you could
00:05:14fly one way.
00:05:15We could drive the van back to Ontario. I have so much stuff. I have precious things. Mom, I can't
00:05:22do without them.
00:05:24They have to come with me. And I said, well, I think probably driving the van, if it's not working
00:05:30now,
00:05:31it's probably not the best idea to drive across country in it. We would probably fly. And she said, but
00:05:38I have too many things in it.
00:05:39She said, I have a trunk. I have, I have books. I have pictures. I have grandpa's old comforter.
00:05:48So she said, I can't. I said, well, we can take a lot on the plane and the rest we
00:05:52can ship, Emma. We can work it out. We can work it out.
00:05:55No, don't come. Then yes. Okay. Maybe come. I need help. She wavered. She wavered. She, you could tell that
00:06:05she wanted not to need help.
00:06:10So I said that I would come, that that was, and that's where we left it on that phone call.
00:06:17And there was another phone call.
00:06:23I hadn't left yet. My suitcases were packed. And it was, don't come. I'm figuring things out.
00:06:34I may need you to come later, but right now I've got things to figure out. So I don't want
00:06:40you to come. I don't want you to come.
00:06:45So my heart was just, it was just broken. I just, the pain I felt for Emma, for what she
00:06:57must have been going through was, was almost insurmountable.
00:07:08By that time, I chose to talk to my other children and to my husband, my ex-husband.
00:07:17And the opinion was unanimous. And the opinion was, if Emma's last words were, don't come, then you need to
00:07:27respect those wishes.
00:07:29You are too forthright. You are too determined. You are hurting. You are hurting for Emma. Emma doesn't want you
00:07:45to come.
00:07:45You can't go. She probably won't even see you. She'll probably turn you away.
00:07:52In one of the phone calls, I suggested to Emma that I come to Victoria and I'm going to bring
00:07:58some books.
00:08:00And I said, you know how rough teaching is and how tired I always am and stressed and exhausted.
00:08:05So I'm going to bring a couple of books and I'm going to let you know what hotel I'm in
00:08:10and what my room number is.
00:08:12And if you decide that you want to see me or you want my help, I will already be in
00:08:18Victoria.
00:08:19I thought that was a fabulous solution. Emma did not think that was a good solution at all.
00:08:24She did not like that at all. She didn't want, she clearly didn't want me in the city during this,
00:08:30at this point.
00:08:33So, cancel the flight, didn't unpack my suitcase.
00:08:40Something told me that there was going to be a point at which I would be going to Victoria.
00:08:47Knowing that either she was going to give me the okay or I was just going to go.
00:08:54Because by then, I am frantic.
00:09:05And when that came up on my caller display, I thought Sandy Merriman was a friend.
00:09:11So the first time, I didn't think too much of it and I thought, well don't call her back.
00:09:16Let her, she's calling you. She's calling you. Don't, don't interfere with that. Don't, don't be pushy.
00:09:22She's called you. She's going to call you again. So don't call.
00:09:28But on the second time that she called from there, I thought, I'm going to call.
00:09:37I'm going to take that chance. I'm going to take that risk.
00:09:40She may be angry with me. She'll be upset with me, but I'm going to do that.
00:09:45So I called back that number.
00:09:50And they answered Sandy Merriman shelter for women.
00:09:54And that's when I discovered she was staying at a shelter.
00:10:03They weren't allowed to divulge much.
00:10:07I asked if Emma was safe.
00:10:15And they said that Emma was safe.
00:10:21I said, do you think I should come to Victoria?
00:10:29And their response was something like, well, we can't really advise you.
00:10:40Staying put and staying home was so difficult because all I wanted to do was go and hold her and
00:10:48help her.
00:10:52I talked to the kids and James again and they said, you just can't go.
00:10:56You just can't go, mom. And please, please don't go.
00:10:59And I deferred to them because I really felt that James and the other kids knew Emma better than I
00:11:10knew Emma.
00:11:17I knew about her need for privacy.
00:11:20I knew that secrecy had kind of snuck in and increased the privacy because of the emails and not phoning
00:11:29very often and that kind of thing.
00:11:33But I didn't feel that I really understood Emma as much as her siblings did and her dad because she
00:11:41was so close to her dad, so close.
00:11:45So I followed their advice.
00:11:47I followed their advice.
00:11:49I followed their advice.
00:12:01For the next couple of weeks.
00:12:01I wanted to come to your mom and mom and dad.
00:12:02It was time to come to my family, but I think so.
00:12:02She thought, yeah?
00:12:06I was a daughter.
00:12:06I was a daughter, the daughter.
00:12:07She thought, yeah?
00:12:08I was a daughter, she thought, no.
00:12:09I was a daughter.
00:12:09She thought, yeah?
00:12:09She thought, yeah?
00:12:09God had been.
00:12:11She thought, yeah?
00:12:16She thought, yeah?
00:12:29Finally, on Wednesday morning, the 28th of November, at about 7 o'clock my time, so
00:12:424 o'clock Emma's time, the phone rings, and it's Emma, and she says the following, she
00:12:50says, don't come, not today, mum. She hung up the phone. That was it. I got on the first
00:13:07plane I could. My suitcase hadn't been unpacked. I flew up to Victoria.
00:13:10Yeah.
00:13:20Oh.
00:13:23Oh.
00:13:27Oh.
00:13:31Oh.
00:13:34Oh.
00:13:38Oh.
00:13:41Oh.
00:14:12I arrived at the airport about 9 o'clock in that night, B.C. time.
00:14:19I got my luggage, grabbed a taxi.
00:14:28So I got there and it was all very hush-hush and, you know, 11 o'clock somebody ringing their
00:14:37bell and stuff and I explained who I was.
00:14:39So they said, okay, and they let me in. The taxi left.
00:14:44The nighttime supervisor was there and I said, so what do you think? Should I wake Emma up or should
00:14:52I wait?
00:14:53And she said, Emma's not here. She didn't come for her bed.
00:15:04I didn't panic at all because I thought, she's 26, it's 11 o'clock. It's not 3 o'clock in
00:15:11the morning.
00:15:12She's not 14. Of course she could be out.
00:15:20So she said, the supervisor said, let's go up to my office and talk.
00:15:27That set off all kinds of lights.
00:15:31I thought, why are we going upstairs to talk?
00:15:34Why are we going someplace really private to talk?
00:15:38That struck me as very odd.
00:15:43I didn't lose my composure.
00:15:46I was on edge.
00:15:48I didn't know why we were doing that.
00:15:51We went upstairs.
00:15:54She said, Emma hasn't been well.
00:15:59There are issues with Emma.
00:16:04I said, oh, okay.
00:16:07And then all those phone calls started playing in my head.
00:16:10And the tears and the come and the don't come and everything.
00:16:17And then, just like that, she said, I think we should call the police.
00:16:24Well, then I just, I didn't know exactly what was wrong with Emma, of course.
00:16:34But I knew that it had to be really, really serious for her to say, let's call the police.
00:16:43So she called the police and two police officers came.
00:16:48And the three of them decided that she should be designated a missing person.
00:16:57So my perception was, well, why are they designating her a missing person?
00:17:04Because she missed her bed once.
00:17:09Why would you be alarmed?
00:17:10I mean, I was alarmed because I had the phone calls.
00:17:14But I couldn't understand why they were so alarmed.
00:17:18Alarmed enough to call the police and designate her a missing person.
00:17:22That was serious.
00:17:25And then I started thinking all kinds of horrible things.
00:17:31I didn't know what to do.
00:17:35One of the police officers said, the best thing you can do is get a hotel room.
00:17:41And we'll go looking for her on the streets.
00:17:47There was a hotel directly across from the shelter.
00:17:52So I said, I'll take my luggage over there and I'll check in and get a room.
00:17:57I said, and then I'm going looking for my daughter.
00:17:59And they said, absolutely not.
00:18:02The streets of Victoria aren't safe.
00:18:04You shouldn't be wandering alone.
00:18:05The next thing you know, there's going to be a second missing person.
00:18:12We strongly advise you not to.
00:18:14If we see you on the street, we will probably request that you get in the car
00:18:19and that we take you back to your hotel.
00:18:22We don't want to see you on the street.
00:18:30So I foolishly, and that's in retrospect, I foolishly thought that there would be a significant effort on the part
00:18:42of the police
00:18:43to find this young woman who suddenly is designated a missing person.
00:18:48Things are so serious.
00:18:50Things that I'm not aware of have escalated to the point that they decide.
00:18:56The supervisor and the police decide.
00:18:59I wasn't really part of the conversation.
00:19:01I was there, but I wasn't really part of the conversation.
00:19:03Decided that she should be considered a missing person.
00:19:09So I got a hotel room, a room that overlooked the street, so I could see the shelter from my
00:19:16room.
00:19:18I didn't undress.
00:19:19I got on the bed, propped up the pillows, and I sat at the window, and I watched the entrance
00:19:26to the Sandy Merriman shelter.
00:19:34One young woman went by, didn't go to the shelter, but she went by, and I leapt up.
00:19:39I just jumped up, and I thought, oh, that must be Emma.
00:19:43I was about to run downstairs when I finally saw her closer, and she didn't go near the shelter,
00:19:49or she bypassed the shelter, and I realized there wasn't Emma.
00:19:52So I sat up for the night, watching the shelter door.
00:20:01So when Emma was reported missing, officers took steps immediately that night.
00:20:07They broadcast her description on air for all the areas, and we sent a message to all the MDTs,
00:20:12that's the mobile computers in the patrol cars themselves.
00:20:15So officers that night knew who they were looking for.
00:20:21They did a lot of area checks, checking parks and other locations where people would hang out.
00:20:26They got a picture of Emma, which was added to our patrol briefing.
00:20:30So the oncoming shift the next morning would have a picture of Emma, and they'd know who they were looking
00:20:34for.
00:20:39We checked with area hospitals, all up and down the islands.
00:20:43Checked if they had dealt with Emma, or if they had any unknown females, or Jane Doe.
00:20:54Victoria police are looking for a missing woman tonight, and they're hoping you can help them find her.
00:20:58Her name is Emma Philippoff.
00:21:00She's 26 years old, and she was last seen in the 800 block of Burdett Avenue last night.
00:21:05Police say she frequents the downtown area, but she has no history of going missing.
00:21:08She was last seen wearing camouflage pants, and was carrying an orange purse.
00:21:14If you see Emma Philippoff, or you know her whereabouts, you're asked to contact police.
00:21:26The second day, I went back to the shelter.
00:21:29She still wasn't there.
00:21:31I thought, I'm going to walk the streets, because I'm going to go around the corner, and I'm going to
00:21:35run into Emma.
00:21:36I'm going to check coffee shops.
00:21:38I'm going to check down by the harbor.
00:21:41I'm going to check places that I think Emma might be.
00:21:48I went to the library, I think, even that first day.
00:21:56I went back to the shelter to talk to them and get some advice.
00:22:03Whoever I spoke to said, I suggest you start putting up posters.
00:22:12When you start putting up missing posters of your child, you start thinking, there's a lot more to this story.
00:22:24And something is so desperately wrong, that it's probably something you can't really fathom.
00:22:34Hi, Emma.
00:22:37Hi, Emma.
00:22:38Hi, Emma.
00:22:40Hi, Emma.
00:22:40Can you do a little one for me over there?
00:22:43This is my Batman.
00:22:46Let's take a picture.
00:22:50Because she got to a stage where she was reticent to have her picture taken,
00:22:57I had very few adult pictures of Emma.
00:23:01And out there with me, I had none.
00:23:05So I said to them, I said, well, I don't have a single picture.
00:23:09They said, well, we have one picture.
00:23:13So that would have been the first time that she had gone to the shelter.
00:23:17It was the only picture I had.
00:23:22And then I discovered, much to my dismay, that in Victoria, you can't just put posters up just anywhere.
00:23:30I didn't know that.
00:23:32So I was putting up Emma's poster on every pole, went into restaurants, went into stores.
00:23:40So as I was putting up posters, the town bylaw officer, I guess, was systematically taking them all down.
00:23:51I continued to approach restaurants, stores, bars, pubs, you name it, I approached them.
00:24:00Some were very great about it and said, I will put it right in the door.
00:24:05And some places said, staff bathroom or staff room.
00:24:14One of the places that wouldn't put on the poster of Emma, anywhere but in the staff room or in
00:24:19the staff bathroom, was the library.
00:24:22Where Emma frequented.
00:24:24Emma frequented the library daily, sometimes for hours.
00:24:34So then I guess my next step was to get in touch with friends of Emma's from home and asking
00:24:44for pictures.
00:24:45So at last I had some color photos.
00:25:03I'm thinking by then, a really kind young man called James stepped into my life.
00:25:13And he had seen the poster.
00:25:15And on the poster, of course, was my email.
00:25:18So he emailed me and said, I don't know who you are, but I don't know why you think Emma's
00:25:27missing.
00:25:28But Emma's not missing.
00:25:31Emma can't be missing.
00:25:32She's not missing.
00:25:33You're mistaken.
00:25:34Like aggressive almost.
00:25:36Like what's wrong with you?
00:25:38So I responded and I said, dear James, I'm Emma's mom.
00:25:44I spoke to Emma quite a few times before I came to Victoria.
00:25:49And she had asked me to come out and then nod.
00:25:51And I explained the situation to him.
00:25:53I said, I really feel that something is seriously wrong.
00:26:00And the police had designated her a missing person as well.
00:26:04So he said, oh.
00:26:09When she first went missing, the way that I found out was a friend of mine taped her missing poster
00:26:17to my door, my apartment.
00:26:20And the first thing I thought was, oh no, it's just a jealous boyfriend.
00:26:25He just doesn't understand.
00:26:26She wants to live free.
00:26:27And she doesn't want commitments.
00:26:30And she just doesn't want to have a phone.
00:26:32She just wants to get away.
00:26:33That was my first really strong feeling of like, this is just a silly, jealous boyfriend.
00:26:39And then I found out that it was her mom.
00:26:42Then I was like, oh, well, maybe some people, maybe it is more serious, you know.
00:26:48But that was my initial duck feeling.
00:26:53I met him probably the next day.
00:26:56And I think he came to the hotel lobby.
00:26:58I think that's where we met.
00:27:02But not that much longer after, he invited his friend Sever Brawny, who's a Canadian author, to join us.
00:27:11So James and Sever were best friends.
00:27:13I believe that James was the best man at Sever's wedding.
00:27:18Either he invited Sever or he told them about what was going on.
00:27:22And Sever said, I maybe can help.
00:27:24Can I help?
00:27:26So Sever and I and James worked as a team.
00:27:32We started meeting at different coffee shops.
00:27:37And we planned our strategies.
00:27:40I handed out posters for them to poster, to hand out.
00:27:44We continued creating Emma's Facebook page.
00:27:48James and Sever saved my life out there.
00:27:52Because I'm not great with computers.
00:27:57I'm also geographically impaired.
00:28:00So I found that their knowledge of the city and their ability to create little maps for us to use,
00:28:08to say, okay, you're going to go here and I'm going to go there, was beyond helpful.
00:28:13Now, no one had a car.
00:28:16It wasn't safe because I would never have my eyes on the road.
00:28:20I'd have my eyes on the sidewalk looking for Emma.
00:28:23So I never rented a car.
00:28:25So everywhere we went, we went on foot.
00:28:28But that was advantageous because on your way to a location, of course, we looked, we searched, right?
00:28:37I went with two women who offered to drive me around to different locations.
00:28:45So I, myself, went to a number of the small islands around Victoria.
00:28:51And a lot of them just had a general store, one restaurant, you know, that type of thing.
00:28:59And everybody was very friendly and helpful and caring.
00:29:03And we said, yes, we'll put up a poster and leave some posters and we'll hand them out to people
00:29:08that we know that, you know, move around a bit.
00:29:12And that's how we spread the news on the islands.
00:29:20So as the investigation went on, we were speaking with Emma's mom, Shelly.
00:29:26She was running her own sort of parallel investigation and doing what she could to find her daughter.
00:29:30And she was sharing all the information she received at the time.
00:29:34So we were taking those leads and investigating those points as well.
00:29:38One of the things we found was Emma's van, which we went through and found some of her possessions and
00:29:43things like her journals,
00:29:44which we were able to read through, trying to develop leads as to what was going on with Emma at
00:29:49the time and where she might have been.
00:29:53I discovered that Emma had a van that the police had confiscated.
00:29:59And it appeared that all her belongings were in it.
00:30:06They said that they had to have the van first because right away I wanted to get into it and
00:30:12see what I could find and see if there were any clues.
00:30:16They'd said no, it needed to go through forensic testing and fingerprinting.
00:30:21And so it was a while before I had access to her van.
00:30:32Tips and information started to trickle into the Help Find Emma of Philippoff Facebook page.
00:30:38And among the messages that I got, a number of them were of sightings of Emma on the day she
00:30:48went missing.
00:30:48And so I got to get into it.
00:31:18After that, she received a few emotions and what I grabbed her.
00:31:40She got a notice saying that the van needed to be moved, so she went and she pleaded with
00:31:45them to please let her have another day, which they did, and actually I spoke to the manager
00:31:54or assistant manager at the Chateau Victoria, and she was very nice and she was very understanding
00:32:01and she gave me the feeling that she felt very bad that Emma had even received a notice
00:32:09that she had to move.
00:32:44Let's try to move the rest of the room.
00:33:20I was very surprised that Emma made those what I considered unusual purchases at 7-Eleven for her because I
00:33:29did discover that she had money in her bank account so I couldn't begin to fathom why she would get
00:33:33a prepaid credit card.
00:36:46Among the messages that I got, a number of them were of sightings of Emma on the day she went
00:36:55missing.
00:37:15And they had commented on the way she was walking, being barefoot and kind of shuffling.
00:37:27My daughter and I saw Emma that morning coming to the entrance facing the Empress Hotel and noticed her wander
00:37:34past us a couple of times going in and out of the building.
00:37:41I first saw her, I saw her, I saw her, and she captured my attention.
00:37:45Like in the business that I saw her, I saw her, I saw her, but she captured my attention because
00:37:56she seemed a little confused.
00:38:03But I saw her, I saw her, but I saw her, but she was like, I saw her, but I
00:38:18saw her, but I saw her, I saw her, I saw her, but she wasn't a little too.
00:38:27oh that looks good what you guys are doing as an artist but it's like she was oblivious to the
00:38:34fact that we were even there but i i just i just saw her and we're painting away my daughter
00:38:43and i
00:38:44and uh and i sort of didn't pay attention to anything until i started seeing her like
00:38:51coming back out and back forth and back out kind of thing a few times and i noticed her i'm
00:38:57going
00:38:58what's there's something going on here is she okay right
00:39:03and uh she started like looking out out from the door and then went up into the court somewhere
00:39:12then like a couple of minutes later came back to the door and went outside again
00:39:17and it's like she was looking around and then came back in
00:39:22she was walking not with normal big steps or immediately she it's almost like she was walking
00:39:28with uh with small steps taking three four steps and then sort of stopping looking and then going
00:39:37back a little bit two three quick little steps and then stopping and then coming back and that sort of
00:39:44thing right it was just totally not normal it it almost looked like she was i don't know if she
00:39:53was evading somebody or uh you know it's it's a mix of she seemed very confused disorientated and
00:40:03she didn't seem like she was scared she wasn't running
00:40:08but it's almost like she was looking for someone or something
00:40:18she seemed like she was lost
00:40:24you know lost in her mind i mean no not lost i don't know where i am but it seemed
00:40:30like she was lost
00:40:31uh should i go left or should i go right or so you go out and then you come back
00:40:38and you know like
00:40:39like what's going on right
00:40:52and then she she's she seemed to have gone at the other end of the nutka court going going up
00:41:01towards broughton street i believe and uh and then i didn't see her again come back in and then we
00:41:07finished the the job and then as we were leaving we uh we went down uh broughton and then we
00:41:14saw her
00:41:15like standing uh inside of broughton or courtney and uh so we saw her standing there again
00:41:29and then i found out later uh when she went missing i go holy crap that's uh that's emma that's
00:41:36the girl
00:41:36we saw right so i made my call and uh and and at the time i figured okay well there's
00:41:43cameras in that
00:41:44building uh i thought that well the police if they're investigating her being missing and they should be
00:41:51able to retrieve the camera footage from the nootka court and i have no idea if they did
00:42:15one of the staff members from redfish bluefish um ori ran into emma on the day she went missing
00:42:28he met her she was on the grassy median outside of a drop kind of a drop-in center called
00:42:34our place
00:42:36and um he wanted to talk to her of course and uh emma said i can't talk i'm having a
00:42:44bad day
00:42:45and ori said can i give you a hug and emma retreated as if she was afraid of ori and
00:42:53afraid of him giving
00:42:54her a hug and she said i've got to go and she skirted around him and she left and she
00:42:59was carrying a
00:43:00whole lot of bags with her this was totally uncharacteristic of emma emma got along with
00:43:10with him certainly and emma didn't display a lot of affection like a lot of hugging or kissing somebody
00:43:19hello or goodbye but she was affectionate and she would definitely had she been emma had she been
00:43:28herself would have accepted a hug from ori
00:43:51she was at rock bay the day she went missing
00:43:56i had seen her many times at the drive-by cafe at the mustard seed we would go out to
00:44:01the streets
00:44:01and serve dinner to anyone who was hungry downtown and she came to get a wrap so we knew it
00:44:07was her
00:44:11so rock bay is um a downtown victoria co-ed a shelter um it was a shelter that i discovered
00:44:23that emma did not
00:44:24want to stay in because of the fact that it was co-ed but apparently she would go there um
00:44:31for food
00:44:46i saw emma the day she was reported missing about one o'clock on pandora
00:44:53i was alerted to her state blankly shuffling down the street
00:45:00as soon as i saw her on the news i called the tips number
00:45:04yes she was shuffling vacant look in her eyes she had very clean hair almost like she just washed
00:45:11it she had white plastic grocery bags over her arms as well as the orange bag across her chest
00:45:19i will never forgive myself for not seeing if she needed help
00:45:45i remember taking the call and thinking wow you know i just spoke to her and she's gone
00:45:52so on the 28th november 28th emma had called the towing company and wanted to have her van towed to
00:46:02souk um it never happened um i don't know why i never found out why it was an expensive little
00:46:12venture
00:46:12it was going to be 202 dollars but emma did have money emma did have money in the account
00:46:21emma philipoff had called to have her vehicle towed and for some reason it didn't work out
00:46:29um i know this because i took the call from her
00:46:37sometime between two and five i think i took the call
00:46:43she wanted her van towed
00:46:48and i know it was somewhere on the west shore it may have been west coast storage but i'm not
00:46:53sure
00:46:54i remember it was a parking lot
00:46:59i just remember talking about it the next day that there was some reason the vehicle couldn't be
00:47:05towed i remember discussing payment with her and after giving her the price i she still wanted it towed
00:47:16somebody went to tow it you know was dispatched to the the call and everything and i believe
00:47:23that driver spoke with her and it was at that point either after they tried to tow it or or
00:47:31they
00:47:31decided no it's not going to work you know i i don't know what it was
00:47:40and i remember at the time thinking this young woman sounds very fragile like just very um delicate
00:47:51very sweet you know like like not she didn't sound distressed or anything but just
00:48:00like i was like i was concerned by how fragile she found it
00:48:06so
00:48:18the other one that stands out was a man that was driving and he saw emma
00:48:24i believe he saw her twice on that day and one of the times she was attempting to cross the
00:48:31street
00:48:35hi i don't know who i should really be talking to but i saw this girl twice on the day
00:48:40she went missing
00:48:41i went to victoria police headquarters the morning that the story was in the times columnist
00:48:46they took my information but nobody ever called me back so here's the info i saw her twice on the
00:48:53wednesday late afternoon i'd say it was between 4 and 6 pm it was starting to get dark i do
00:49:00sponsorships
00:49:01and marketing for the victoria grizzlies so i was down at the bay center as i left out the main
00:49:07douglas
00:49:08street doors she crossed my path and i noticed her mainly the big mane of hair she had coming out
00:49:14of her hood
00:49:14street doors she had coming out of her hood about 45 minutes later i've gotten in my car and headed
00:49:32up to
00:49:33mayfair mall
00:49:39i'm at the corner of douglas and finlayson and here's the same girl from earlier crossing the street
00:49:45in front of my car i just thought of it as funny coincidence she glanced at me as she was
00:49:53crossing so
00:49:53i smiled and what i received back was so sad type of smile you smile when you're holding back tears
00:50:04my immediate reaction was that i felt i should park the car and ask if she was okay but then
00:50:09i figured
00:50:09that since i'm a 30 year old man that may come across as creepy so i didn't now ever since
00:50:15i saw
00:50:15her in the paper i can't forgive myself for not following my gut instincts anyways she was walking
00:50:22up douglas i don't think she went into the mayfair mall because she didn't cut through the parking lot
00:50:27she kept going straight up douglas i went up the street and i got past got gas at the shell
00:50:33by
00:50:34uptown if the police find me on the shell station video that day they should be able to find her
00:50:39on
00:50:39cameras going up douglas i hope this helps don't hesitate to contact me day or night if you need
00:50:45anything that one i remember that one i remember
00:50:56what are your thoughts on this one what do you remember like feeling at the time
00:51:03um i remember feeling really hopeful really scared really sad sad that he said that she looked like she
00:51:13was on the verge of tears sad to think that she had wandered all that way up from where she
00:51:18had been
00:51:21earlier
00:51:24here again it says they contacted police it seems like police received an insane amount of calls
00:51:30yeah emma in one day yeah go figure a in the course they couldn't find her
00:51:39my thought was is this is this like a mental health or does she
00:51:44maybe on something so she doesn't feel the cold like that
00:51:49what stood out was she was with an older man walking barefoot across the crosswalk at bay and quadra
00:51:59she fit exact same description and i did not know about her until the news came on
00:52:05and the only reason i remember her was she was barefoot in november
00:52:11also the fact that she was young and pretty and walking with an older man
00:52:15with gray white hair this man was clearly leading emma down the road towards fairways on bay street
00:52:25i called vic pd but they were completely uninterested in what i'd seen like i was just seeking attention
00:52:36they didn't seem to give a crap what like just that oh yeah okay yeah all right thanks
00:52:45she asked a couple questions like what kind of jacket was he wearing
00:52:49and what was the location you know but it was very brief okay thank you and goodbye and i thought
00:52:55maybe they would reach out to me again after that and i'm like well that was rather quick but they
00:53:00never did
00:53:05it was dark i remember that like not pitch black but it was it was dark enough
00:53:15so the first thing i did is that i looked at them they were just i didn't think anything of
00:53:19it it was
00:53:20just a couple couldn't have cared less thought okay and then i looked and i seen that she had bare
00:53:27feet
00:53:27and i was like whoa and i was like it's freezing cold out like what the heck so i got
00:53:36it i took a good
00:53:36look at both and like what is going on i thought maybe like she needed a little bit of guidance
00:53:44it
00:53:44looked like maybe she was i wouldn't say completely like i don't want to say she was under the influence
00:53:49of anything but she looked like she was a bit vulnerable and the man seemed to kind of be
00:53:56steadying her as he she was kind of like they weren't walking hand in hand but they were walking
00:54:01like clothes like really side by side and he seemed to be kind of like at one point when they're
00:54:07walking like just kind of steering her just slightly like oh yeah like kind of moving her and she would
00:54:11and she was going so and the way he looked like i just looked at him and i looked at
00:54:16his jack and i
00:54:17looked at him he's an older fellow you had like a darker blue just kind of like a spring jacket
00:54:27she was kind of looking up at him and chatting and kind of like like like she was like she
00:54:32knew this
00:54:33guy like she was comfortable like she knew him she was like you know she didn't appear like all upset
00:54:39or anything like that she but but um you know like a bit animated with him kind of chit chatty
00:54:47standing
00:54:48there while we were waiting for the light and then he was just kind of like and then let's go
00:54:57and and the closest that i can say that he looked like was that um guide off that that movie
00:55:04just the
00:55:05slim build kind of white thinning hair but his was like kind of like a bit scraggly like long i'll
00:55:12pull
00:55:12up one that i thought came to mind when i seen him just his build his body build just kind
00:55:18of that
00:55:18casual very casual like almost like you know like how a professor would would dress if he's going to
00:55:26university he might have a bit of you know frazzled hair but it's just that kind of casual attire that
00:55:31he had on that made me i went gosh he reminds me who is that that reminds i seen that
00:55:37guy before where
00:55:37is he and i was thinking about it and thinking i'm like oh my gosh that's brewster and so here
00:55:42i'll just bring it up on my phone i don't know if you can see that
00:55:47only with longer hair thinning because it was white so there's that and then this one only with
00:55:55like stringier hair stringier long white hair
00:56:01he just in my opinion he came across just as kind of this creepy older guy
00:56:06that had an interest in her that's exactly what i thought
00:56:11i could tell he was definitely in control of of the situation like he was completely coherent he
00:56:17didn't look or appear like he was under the influence of anything but very but interested in her
00:56:37i think she said she had been staying with a friend and it didn't work out and so she was
00:56:44checking into
00:56:45the shelter she already had a bed she i think she was there the night before
00:56:56that night i came on about seven or no i came on at about 11 and shelley arrived when i
00:57:03was on ship
00:57:05and so when i came on we we often just discuss where everybody is if so-and-so's home so
00:57:12-and-so's out
00:57:14you know we go through the list of the women that were staying with us that we know where they're
00:57:17at
00:57:18you know and emma had been out but then um i was told that she was acting a little bizarre
00:57:26that night like she tried to throw her throw out a vacuum cleaner into the dumpster and i guess one
00:57:33of the staff said you know what are you doing emma you know that you don't need to throw that
00:57:36out
00:57:37and she would just she apparently just you know stopped doing that and then then she left not too
00:57:44long after that it was it was bizarre it was like you know not behavior that we didn't normally see
00:57:49from her
00:57:52and we were anticipating her mom to come um to the shelter because she had phoned ahead and said she
00:58:00was she was coming she was on the plane
00:58:57home and she was like
00:59:21She came in to my work.
00:59:26And so I was helping her with the cell phone transaction.
00:59:33I happened to notice that, you know, she's a little off.
00:59:38She wasn't wearing his shoes.
00:59:44Went through the transaction and tried to help her as much as I can.
01:00:10Because I had thought all along and felt that I actually knew that she had an aversion to cell phones,
01:00:16I couldn't understand why she would be purchasing one.
01:00:34Her hair is loose and wild. I had never seen her hair like that.
01:00:41She looked nervous. She looked distraught, distressed, scared.
01:00:48And again, I mean, this is just a short piece of footage, but I got a very, very bad feel
01:00:55from watching that footage.
01:00:57And then again, I was walked in there.
01:01:25So what did they say with her?
01:01:27I also remember that she had come in the day before she came in asking about her cell phones.
01:01:37Before those two nights, I had never seen her at all.
01:01:43The first day that she came in inquiring about the cell phones, she seemed pretty normal
01:01:50for the most part, but the second night, she seemed a little bit frantic.
01:01:59She was looking around the store.
01:02:06She wasn't wearing any shoes, she just had socks on.
01:02:31I didn't really happen to notice that, you know, there's anything too significant by
01:02:36looking her in the eyes.
01:02:39She had issues looking at me directly.
01:02:43She had issues looking at me directly.
01:02:44I was a friend of mine and I was a friend of mine.
01:02:53I'm a friend of mine.
01:03:05I'm a friend of mine and I'm a friend of mine.
01:03:40The news had it the next day, and that's why we're here.
01:03:43That's why I phoned, because I was worried, because I said, hey, that girl was in my car.
01:03:52Bob, the taxi driver who had given Emma a ride, literally around the block in Victoria,
01:04:00he got in touch with me once he knew, realized that the young woman he had given a ride to
01:04:07was in fact Emma, the woman who was missing.
01:04:10So he got in touch with me, and we met for a coffee, and we talked.
01:04:18He had a little bit of startling information.
01:04:20He said that she got in the taxi.
01:04:24I was actually parked illegally on the corner of Courtney and Douglas Street, 800 block of
01:04:35Douglas Street.
01:04:39She was standing really confused by the car, and then she got in.
01:04:46She walked over, and she basically told me she wanted to go to the airport.
01:04:52And I looked at the time, and it was kind of an odd time to be going to the airport,
01:04:56so
01:04:56I asked her where she was flying to, and she says, I don't know.
01:05:00She didn't have no luggage or anything.
01:05:02That's another thing that threw a flag at me.
01:05:06She just basically had her, I think it was whatever, she kept her wallet and that in.
01:05:12And she said, you know how much it costs to go to the airport?
01:05:15And she said, no, and I said it was around $60.
01:05:17And she said, oh, that's way too much.
01:05:19Which didn't make sense, because she had money in her bank account.
01:05:23She could easily afford to.
01:05:28So what she ended up doing was asking Bob to just drive around the block and come back and
01:05:35drop her at the exact same spot.
01:05:39Like, rather than just get out wherever they were, she wanted him to drive around and come
01:05:44back and drop her where he, exactly where he had picked her up, which was a little bit strange.
01:05:52So I took her right back to where I picked her up.
01:06:01I went about three blocks.
01:06:02It was only around a $7 taxi ride.
01:06:08He also said that she asked if she could just sit in the car for a little while, almost as
01:06:13if she was afraid to get out.
01:06:16I don't know what she was afraid of.
01:06:18There are a lot of things like that that make me wonder if she was afraid of a person.
01:06:24Just peering out at the 7-Eleven and coming back in and checking and then not wanting to
01:06:31get out of the taxi.
01:06:39And at one point, she was really upset by the sound coming out of the radio.
01:06:45And I don't remember if it was like a public radio station or if it was his dispatch radio,
01:06:51but she was stressed over the noise that was coming out of one of those radios, which was also a
01:07:02little bit odd.
01:07:06She, to me, she looked like totally confused and like she wasn't there, like she was high on something maybe.
01:07:16I'm not a doctor, so I can't tell.
01:07:18But it wasn't the same girl because I talked to her at the Redfish Bluefish a couple of times.
01:07:25During our conversation over coffee, Bob ended up telling me that he knew Emma from around the city and that
01:07:34he knew her from Redfish Bluefish,
01:07:35the seasonal restaurant where she worked, so he recognized her.
01:07:45I believe that his comment was she didn't look like the same woman.
01:07:55That's where we noticed her because she was always feeding the seagulls, not the crows.
01:08:03And she always sat at the picnic bench all the time.
01:08:08When she was on a break, I guess, she would sit on a bench not too far from the restaurant
01:08:14and she would feed the birds.
01:08:16And Bob remembered this.
01:08:19And it wasn't the first time that someone had told me that they had seen Emma feeding birds, not just
01:08:24in that location.
01:08:25She was just known for feeding birds.
01:08:37Today is Friday, July 15th.
01:08:44And Emma has a very special friend with her.
01:08:47Emma, if you come a little bit closer, stay there and I'll try to focus in to show that, just
01:08:53a minute, Matthew,
01:08:55that Emma has a pet squirrel.
01:08:58And the squirrel's decided that he likes living in Emma's shirt, sort of like a mini hammock for him.
01:09:05And he's in there, having his breakfast.
01:09:10What's he having for breakfast, Emma?
01:09:12Peanuts and bread.
01:09:13And he didn't eat lettuce.
01:09:16No, I don't think they're lettuce eating us.
01:09:18But he did.
01:09:19Oh, did he eat the lettuce yesterday?
01:09:21Yep.
01:09:22And there he is.
01:09:24He's a little bit shy.
01:09:26Oh, it's so cute, Emma.
01:09:28Good morning, Emma.
01:09:30Good morning.
01:09:30Reading about these sightings, a scary picture began to form for me.
01:09:36I mean, I was becoming aware of things that were more than unnerving.
01:09:45But the descriptions that I got of Emma on that day were actually very scary.
01:09:52And the picture that it painted was a scary one, where I felt that she was very, very unwell
01:10:02and that she definitely needed help.
01:10:12And I called the 911 dispatcher and they're like, fire, police, ambulance.
01:10:18And I told them, like, well, I'm not really sure if it's ambulance or police.
01:10:21I kind of explained briefly, like, there's a girl I know and she doesn't seem like completely
01:10:25herself.
01:10:26I know I knew her from once before, but something just seemed, like, off.
01:10:29And it's like someone to kind of go on and check with her, like, see if she's okay.
01:10:34And they're like, okay, like, well, like, did she ask for help?
01:10:37I'm like, well, no, but, like, she just just seemed sort of out of it.
01:10:40She's not wearing her shoes.
01:10:42And I said, like, yeah, we'll send, like, a police car over there to check her out sort
01:10:46of thing.
01:10:46I'm like, okay, sounds good.
01:10:48Bye, for it.
01:10:50Check.
01:10:51Stay on the channel.
01:10:51And I will let you know.
01:10:53One moment.
01:10:54I remember finding out that the police had spoken to Emma that night, and I remember
01:11:03finding out that it was on record that they spoke with her from 7.23 until 8 o'clock, and
01:11:10I was stunned.
01:11:14A woman looking disheveled, looking distraught, lost, bare feet, clutching her shoes, being
01:11:25interviewed by police.
01:11:27That is in direct opposition to the picture that the other story, the other narrative told.
01:11:36Hold.
01:11:37And now...
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