Richard David Marlow, known as Peewee, was nine years old when he disappeared from outside his family home on Beta Street in Etobicoke, Ontario, on the evening of July 18, 1944. He was small for his age at 3 feet 8 inches and about 50 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and a small scar on his right temple. He was last seen riding his sister’s bicycle in front of the house while his mother and some siblings were at the movies; when his mother returned the bicycle lay in the yard and Richard was gone. He was wearing a dark blue windbreaker, long blue pants, a striped jersey and gray cotton stockings with a yellow band.

An immediate and extensive search involved family, neighbors, Etobicoke police and the army militia; searches included dredging nearby Etobicoke Creek but turned up nothing. His father, then serving in the military, came home to join the effort. His parents followed reported sightings across Canada and the United States for years and checked unidentified remains in morgues, without success. Toronto Police have kept the case open; family DNA was collected for the national unidentified remains database and police released a video with family photos in 2020.

The family plot in Glendale Cemetery still has a space reserved beside his parents. Does anyone from the Etobicoke area in 1944 remember details about that summer evening or Richard’s whereabouts afterward?