The mother of a Parksville woman missing for more than six years hopes this will be the year she finds out what happened to her daughter.
Carmel Gilmour was last seen driving her van in the Little Mountain area in Parksville on Nov. 15 of 2017.
“My intention is to lay her to rest this year because I’m not going to torture myself looking for the next 20 years for something I may never find,” said mom Barbara Gilmour.
Carmel’s 2002 Chevy Venture was located by RCMP parked at a highway rest stop near the Shady Rest in Qualicum Beach on Nov. 21, 2017. The vehicle was initially spotted there on Nov. 15 and was reported as being suspicious since it had not moved in at least six days, according to Sgt. Shane Worth of the Oceanside RCMP.
Since then the trail has gone cold, although Carmel’s mother, Barbara, has been investigating ever since.
She believes Carmel was given a fatal “hot shot”, an overdose administered by someone else.
Carmel was addicted to drugs and lived in her van, Barbara said and became involved with dangerous people she said prey on vulnerable individuals.
She said Carmel’s role was to transport supplies into bush camps used by drug dealers. One route for this purpose travels down Melrose Road between Whiskey Creek and Qualicum Beach, according to Barbara.
RCMP searched Carmel’s van and found no sign of any struggle or violence. No items such as keys, a cellphone, a purse or wallet turned up either, according to police.
Recently the case was covered at length on the Truth North Crime podcast, which included an interview with Barbara.
She said she still receives information regarding her daughter’s case, and said it’s a mixture of credible tips and others that seem way off.
“There have been a lot of different speculations,” Barbara said. “There have been quite a number that focus it in the same direction and it’s a difficult situation at best because it involves another prominent case in this area and they’re both open investigations and so it’s a little tricky.”
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The other prominent case refers to the death of three people in 2020 in Whiskey Creek. Barbara said she believes the person responsible for Carmel’s death died in that incident.
“There’s something going on around here and there are a lot of people who know about it and there are people who are leaving the area over it,” she said. “I’ve spoken to several of them. Some of them when they were here prior to leaving the area, some of them I’ve contacted through comments on missing person sites.”
Although she and her daughter were estranged, Carmel was always in touch with someone, Barbara said. She added that Carmel would return to her periodically, and would not abandon her children.
“One of the reasons I did come forward with this is she’s been deemed a missing person. Legally speaking that’s what she is,” Barbara said. “So a lot of people steer in that direction, that she’s just missing and she’s going to come home. It’s agonizing, actually, for me.”
She hopes Carmel will be remembered as a beautiful person who was loved.
“Anybody that comes to me tells me what a beautiful person she was, what a good heart she had,” Barbara said. “She loved her kids and she was a super hard worker. She was just a really good person who went down a bad path.”
Oceanside RCMP hope someone in the community has information about Carmel’s disappearance and are asking for assistance in locating her.
If anyone has any information about Carmel Gilmour’s disappearance, please contact the Oceanside RCMP at 250-248-6111 quoting file No. 2017-10474.