Lonnie Philip Boudreau was 10 when he disappeared from his Vanier home in Ottawa on February 5, 1981. That evening he asked his mother to go to the basement to watch television and, about fifteen minutes later, apparently slipped out a basement window into the cold. He was described as a Caucasian boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, about four feet six inches tall, with a gap between his front teeth and a birthmark on the side of his neck. He wore a blue and red lumberjack jacket over a blue velour sweater, blue corduroy pants and snowmobile boots.

Lonnie had a history of running away following his parents’ divorce in 1975 and had been placed with other caregivers at times. He had run away the day before his final disappearance and was found at a movie theatre a few hours later. In the weeks after February 5 there were multiple reported sightings around Ottawa, tips that he was panhandling on Rideau Street or spending time in arcades, and hang-up calls to his mother that she suspected were from him; those leads stopped after several weeks. The case remains open.

If anyone knew Lonnie, his friends, or his movements in Ottawa in early 1981, can you share what you remember?