Port Alberni’s Amber Manthorne has been missing for one year. Friends and family will remember Manthorne tonight (Friday, July 7) with a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. at the Maritime Discovery Centre pier, 2900 Harbour Road in Port Alberni.
Manthorne was reported missing on July 8, 2022; friends and family told Port Alberni RCMP they hadn’t heard from her since two days previously. Her car was found south of Nanaimo in the Cassidy area the next day. The Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit took over the case on July 12, 2022.
READ: Hundreds of volunteers spend weekend searching for Amber Manthorne
READ: Disappearance of Port Alberni woman featured in Island Crime podcast
Despite large official and unofficial searches of Great Central Lake area—where Manthorne lived with her ex-boyfriend, Justin Hall—and the area where her white 2021 Jeep Compass was discovered, Manthorne was not found. Her friends dubbed the public group searching the logging roads ‘Amber’s Army.’
The case was covered by true crime podcaster Laura Palmer of Island Crime in Season 4: Finding Amber. Palmer updated the podcast with two new episodes released July 6.
After the candlelight vigil was publicized, Palmer and Amber’s friends posted on social media that Hall died on July 4, 2023—three days before the one-year anniversary of Amber’s disappearance. No details were released.
Corporal Alex Bérubé with B.C. RCMP’s Island District said there are no updates to report on Manthorne’s disappearance. When asked if he could confirm Hall’s death, he said “Police can’t confirm nor will it release names of deceased individuals unless there is an investigational need for it.”
Nicole Malcomson, one of the people organizing the vigil, said the silence is difficult for friends and family. “The lack of official updates are unfortunate and frustrating but I could only hope there’s a rationale behind their strategy, and if it potentially impacts the case negatively by sharing, we have to respect it,” she said.
“We can only continue to hope that there’s a conclusion for her disappearance and she can be brought home to her waiting loved ones. But until then, we will continue to look for her and keep her memory alive in whatever positive ways we can.”
susie.quinn@albernivalleynews.com
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