This past Mother’s Day was one of anguish for Elizabeth Faber.
A week prior she carried out yet another search for her son, Dean Morrison, who went missing from Stump Lake Ranch in Merritt on Oct. 22, 2013.
“He’s just gone; I don’t know what happened to him that day,” said Faber from her home in Merritt.
Desperate for answers, Faber sought out putting up a missing billboard along the highway. Just recently, that billboard was put up on Yellowhead Highway on the north east edge of Kamloops, and shows a picture of Dean every 60 seconds with the date he went missing. The Pattison Group gifted that to Faber.
Morrison had just lost his job
The day of Morrison’s disappearance, the father of three — who called Langley home for several years — had been fired from a painting job at the ranch, located northeast of Merritt. He had only been on the job a little over a month. Morrison and his wife had separated earlier and it had hit her son hard. But it was something he didn’t speak about with anyone at the ranch, she said.
“He was a really fast worker, a hard worker, but his boss told me he had changed his work ethic the last two weeks,” Faber said.
His sister, with whom he would stay on his days off, was on antidepressants and anxiety medication at the time.
Faber said Morrison’s sister gave him a bottle of Ativan that day. When he arrived for work at the ranch on Oct. 22, his boss thought Morrison was acting strangely and appeared lethargic, and so he fired him.
“He was really drowsy and his boss thought he was on drugs,” she said. “The ranch has a zero tolerance policy.”
Truck wouldn't start so Morrison set out on foot
After being fired, Morrison couldn’t get his truck to start so he called a tow truck. That was at about 9:30 a.m. The tow truck didn’t arrive for about three hours.
“Dean would have known the tow truck — the only one in town — would be a while, so he phoned a friend for a ride,” she said.
The friend didn’t get the message in time and by 1 p.m., when the tow truck arrived, Morrison had vanished. He has not been seen since.
“He never missed phoning me every week,” she said. “Maybe it was a hit-and-run, maybe he fell, I just don’t know.”
He was not a drug user and didn’t have any mental health issues in his life, she said.
He leaves behind three children who, Faber said, “he adored.”
Was Langley candidate in 2004, 2005 elections
Morrison spent several years living in Langley. While here, he threw his hat into the political ring. He ran in two elections for the NDP. In the 2004 federal election, he received 16 per cent of the votes in the Langley riding, coming in third against current MP Mark Warawa.
The following year, he ran for the B.C. NDP and garnered 8,303 votes in the provincial election. He was just beaten out by Mary Polak,who is the current MLA for Langley.
In his campaigns, he championed equal rights for all, especially for women, was vocal about embracing green technology and sought peace over war.
While living in Langley, Morrison and his wife organized plays and art shows at the Langley Community Music School. He was also instrumental in creating the disc golf course in Passive Park in Brookswood, as well as the Langley Disc Golf Association.
After the couple left Langley, Morrison went to work for Merritt NDP MLA Harry Lali on his 2013 campaign.
“Harry wanted to run a clean campaign, he didn’t want it to be ugly, but it didn’t work. Dean felt terrible that Harry lost,” said his mom.
“He has always had an interest in politics. A lot of people don’t know that he volunteered for the NDP and would make dinners during the campaigns all on his own dime. He could cook circles around me.”
Morrison later became a reporter for the Merritt News, then moved to the Merritt Herald as its editor.
“He did lots of different things — even owned a restaurant at one time — but his basic wage always came from house painting,” Faber said.
That’s what brought Morrison to Stump Lake Ranch.
Police search turned up no clues
Police searched for Morrison by air and by ground after he went missing. A Facebook page was started to organize a community search in November 2013.
To make life even more unimaginably painful, Faber’s daughter died 10 months after Morrison went missing.
“I lost both my children that year,” said Faber.
Faber wants closure instead of always wondering what happened to her son.
“Dean was such a joy, so kind, so smart. I just want people to know my son and all that he was,” she said.
Kamloops RCMP Const. Jason Epp said they have no leads in his disappearance.
“The last time we looked at this was in March but there is no new information,” said Epp. “But we look at missing files at least once a year and run through it with fresh eyes.”
If you know the whereabouts or have any information about Dean Kelly Morrison, call Rural Kamloops RCMP at 1-250-314-1800.