Missing Yarmouth man's case added to provincial reward program

Kimberly Morton is certain that somebody knows something about the disappearance of her cousin 2½ years ago, and she's hoping the offer of a $150,000 reward from the Nova Scotia government will shake loose some information.

Zach Lefave was last seen early on the morning of New Year's Day 2021. He had just left a party and was seen walking along the side of Highway 334 near Plymouth, N.S., in Yarmouth County.

"It's been quite a mystery, but we live in a very small town, so I do believe that there are multiple people around here that know what happened," Morton said.

On Friday, the Nova Scotia government announced it has added Lefave's case to the province's unsolved crime rewards program, which offers up to $150,000 for information leading to a conviction in a criminal case.

"We 100 per cent suspect foul play," Morton said. "We've been, probably for the last year and a half, have been trying to get the major crimes unit to make a media release, stating that they also believe that it is foul play, that there were suspicious circumstances or something of the sort."

Since just days after Lefave's disappearance, Morton has run a Facebook page about the case to try to help bring her cousin home. She said not knowing what became of him has been hard on the family.

"Just pure hell for everybody, not knowing, knowing that walking around this town and we know that there are people that know and they're not speaking up," she said.

"So you walk around you're like: do you know something? Do you know something? You're kind of suspicious of everybody. There's been multiple people named, multiple stories about what happened, so literally everybody's still a suspect in our minds."

Morton said Lefave had no enemies, no criminal record and never went more than half a day without getting in touch with family, so his disappearance is uncharacteristic.

Morton said local businesses contributed to a reward of $8,000 that's been available for 2½ years, without success. She's hoping the larger provincial reward will make a difference.

In addition to the rewards and the Facebook page, Morton said the family continues to put up posters and hold marches to keep Lefave's name in people's thoughts.

His name now joins a list of 116 other unsolved cases in the provincial program. Five cash awards have been paid out since the program started in 2006.