Search continues for Meagan Pilon, who vanished 10 years ago

Meagan was last seen by her father on Sept. 11, 2013. She was 15 years old.

And while Meagan has not been seen since that day a decade ago, it doesn’t mean people have stopped looking for her. Her family continues to hold out hope she will be found, and a grassroots missing persons group continues to search for, too.

Greater Sudbury Police Service also hasn’t given up hope. In a news release today, GSPs highlighted Meagan’s disappearance and said the search for her hasn’t ended.

“The Greater Sudbury Police Service remains committed to investigating the circumstances of Meagan Pilon’s disappearance and finding answers for her family, friends, and the community,” GSPS said. “Over the past decade the Greater Sudbury Police Service has followed-up on numerous leads and interviewed  several witnesses.”

Meagan’s family, naturally, also continues to search for their missing loved one. Sudbury.com spoke with two of her aunts, Carol Martel and Tammy Martel, at the first Meagan Pilon Memorial Walk held in 2022.

At the time, Carol said what may have happened to her niece and who, if anyone, is responsible is not as important as the closure the family hopes to find when Meagan is found.

“It’s hard, especially during the holidays. It’s not the same without her. I go to bed every night wondering,” she said. 

She said the family doesn’t care about criminality or culpability, “just lead us to where she’s at,” Carol said.

“Help us clear our conscience — our family needs closure,” she said, adding that Meagan’s mother (her sister) passed away when the missing girl was six. “We want her to rest with her mom.”

Volunteer searchers with the grassroots missing persons group Please Bring Me Home and members of the Greater Sudbury Missing Persons Facebook page said using the news media and social media is key to the effort of finding Meagan.

Julie Charette and Natashia PIckering are local members of Please Bring Me Home. They said keeping the case in the public eye keeps Meagan’s name in people’s minds and lets her know (and anyone else paying attention) that people are still looking for her.

Tips are still coming in regarding Meagan, they told Sudbury.com in 2022, but none have borne fruit. Charette and Pickering want anyone with information to know that all tips are anonymous — the information about Meagan’s fate and whereabouts are what’s most important.

They don’t want anyone with information to keep it to themselves out of fear of any repercussions for sharing what they know.

“Don’t be afraid to share all the information,” they said.

Please Bring Me Home and its members have assisted in locating 17 missing people, two of whom were sadly deceased, Charette and Pickering said. One case that didn’t end successfully was the group’s work in helping solve the case of Dale Nancy Wyman, a 22-year-old from Ottawa who vanished in 1980. Wyman was found after 40 years and had recently passed away of natural causes.

“This is an example of the power of social media and how important it is to keep sharing — someone knows something.”

Locally, the Greater Sudbury Missing Persons Facebook page was founded in 2014 by Pickering, who was trying to locate her own daughter. Thankfully, her daughter was found. Now, Pickering maintains the page as a resource for other Sudbury parents and family members who are also searching for a missing loved one.

Pickering said Greater Sudbury Missing Persons has assisted in finding 200 or more missing people.

In 2020, Greater Sudbury Police enlisted the help of a forensic artist with the Ontario Provincial Police, who provided an age-enhanced composite of what Pilon might look like today at the age of 23.

While it’s unknown what Meagan may look like as a 25-year-old woman, at the time of her disappearance she was described as standing 5-10 tall and weighing 140 lbs., with dark hair, hazel eyes, and a small scar on her right upper lip.

Anyone with information regarding Meagan Pilon’s disappearance is encouraged to contact the Greater Sudbury  Police Service at 705-675-9171 or Crime Stoppers 705-222-8477.

All tips can be submitted to pleasebringmehome.com or by calling the tip hotline at 1-226-702-2728.