Michelle Gurney, 29, disappeared from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the winter of 1998. She was last seen on December 11, 1998, outside the St. James Community Society building; her social worker reported her missing ten days later. A member of the Nisga’a First Nation, she was born in Prince Rupert and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at 17, which led to periods in group homes and outpatient care.

Michelle had a history of drug use and sex work and was living at the Portland Hotel by 1995. She stood 5 feet 4 inches, had long black hair, brown eyes, a medium build, a dark complexion, and weighed about 99–100 pounds when she vanished. Her disappearance has been discussed in reports on missing and murdered Indigenous women; as of a 2012 commission report there was no record of her death and she had not been found.

Did anyone who knew Michelle in the Downtown Eastside or Portland Hotel area around 1998 see her in the weeks after December 11?