Ray Halleran has been missing since 2018, and investigators are stumped. But they're still looking
Ray Halleran could be in St. Vincent's, Costa Rica, or anywhere in between, says Mounties
Ray Halleran left to go to Alberta on a rotation — at least that's what his family believed and told police after the father of two disappeared in 2018, from a small community known more for its whales than crime.
Now, more than six years later, the RCMP say they have yet to find any job lined up for the welding inspector, nor a shred of evidence to say he left at all.
"We've looked at every possible avenue. But with Mr. Halleran, there has been no evidence that has surfaced that has pinpointed in one direction more than the other," said RCMP lead investigator Const. John Galway.
"It's like he's just vanished."
Halleran, 49, was known as a jack of all trades. He volunteered in the community, raced in Targa, enjoyed the outdoors and travelled.
"I was told he was a master carpenter. He was good out in the water. He was a diver," Galway said.
"He could build anything. I think he built his own house. He could drive an excavator … avid hunter. He was a very well-rounded individual."
Halleran also had a good reputation as a welder and manager who worked on many major projects in both Alberta and Newfoundland.
That's why it wasn't unusual, Galway said, for Halleran to have left his home on Jan. 12, 2018, to work a rotation in Alberta.
The problem? There's no record of Halleran taking a flight or ferry. Nor was a ticket ever booked. And he left on foot for the airport, some two hours away. His wife, who reported him missing, says he was supposed to have been picked up, but she doesn't know that person's identity.
"We checked with all the airports, the ferry terminal, CATSA [Canadian Air Transport Security Authority], Passport Canada, anybody that we could reach out to," Galway said.
Galway said the team contacted Halleran's friends and former colleagues to determine who he was going to work for, without luck.
"No one came looking for him, questioning that he never showed up [to work]. So it's like he just disappeared that day."
'A real mystery'
Galway said the Mounties did countless interviews with family, friends, and neighbours. They canvassed the community for video surveillance, scoured his finances, telephone records, and social media. Halleran travelled frequently to Costa Rica, and the RCMP issued a missing persons advisory in that country in case someone had seen or heard from him.
"Everything went cold," he said.
There's no wide consensus in the RCMP's major crime unit on what may have happened to Halleran, Galway explained.
Without further evidence, it's difficult to come to a conclusion one way or another, he said.
"There's different members in the unit who think certain things, but it has gone back and forth, it's flopped back and forth several times," he said.
Galway said Halleran had been doing local construction jobs, just down the road, before his disappearance.
"That job was left unfinished, like his tools and things were left … just like he disappeared that day, but there's no indication that any foul play had taken place or that someone was out to get Ray Halleran or anything like that. It's just a real mystery of where he went."
The RCMP and locals have conducted ground searches. The RCMP have leaned on their canine, marine and tactical units, as well as using a helicopter and drone. Galway said it would be rash to rule out any one area just because it has already been searched.
"I have been part of searches in the past where sometimes things are missed, and it's no fault to the dog, or a helicopter, or GPS tracking by the ground search and rescue," he said.
"But sometimes in these wooded areas or water, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Halleran is described as five-foot-nine, 175 pounds with grey eyes and brown hair that may have been dyed purple.
"Ray has a family …So I know they've gone through a tremendous amount ever since this happened. So we really do want to find out what happened to Ray, where he is, mainly for them," Galway said.
"I do believe that somebody somewhere knows something about Mr. Halleran. I mean, people just don't disappear without a trace, you know?"
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