Tom Ombash was 14 when he and his brother Charles left Pelican Falls Residential School around October 5, 1956, intending to return to their home at Cat Lake First Nation. The brothers planned either a direct canoe trip to Cat Lake or a mixed route involving train to Savant Lake, hitchhiking to Pickle Lake, then canoeing the final leg. Their family never heard from them again after they left the school.

The school did not report the boys missing until November 10, 1956. Tom and Charles are listed among fifteen students recorded as missing from Pelican Lake Indian Residential School between 1926 and 1973. Searches decades later produced bone fragments in 2012 that were determined to be non-human, and bones found in 2015 were never forensically confirmed as belonging to the brothers.

The family, including sister Delia Kenequanash, continued seeking answers. Does anyone have memories or information about the brothers, their route, or the area around Pelican Falls in 1956?