Dawn Eva Carisse was 43 when she vanished from the North Bay Psychiatric Hospital in Ontario on August 9, 2001. A mother of three who had suffered a brain injury from a blood clot on December 24, 1991, she lived with severe short-term memory loss and disorientation and required significant supervision. Staff described her as pleasant, witty and determined to see her children in the Kirkland Lake area; she had left the hospital on nine previous occasions and called herself Dawn the running bear.

Dawn was noticed missing at about 5:00 p.m. when patients gathered for dinner; staff searched the grounds and nearby Highway 11 and reported her missing to North Bay police the next morning. She was last seen wearing a long pink short-sleeved dress with a faint white floral pattern, brownish-red closed-toed sandals, and may have had a small dark duffel bag. Investigators interviewed staff, family and friends, issued public alerts and received two unconfirmed sightings.

The inquiry has been complicated by discrepancies about the timing and route of her departure; it’s now thought she may have left earlier through a back door in a craft room, and some of her personal belongings that were supposed to be locked away were missing. It is believed she may have been trying to reach Kirkland Lake or possibly Sudbury to find her children. Does anyone remember seeing Dawn around North Bay or along Highway 11 in August 2001?