John James Semple was 89 when he was last seen in the Huntsville area sometime between January and March of 1998. He was described as having grey, short hair, blue eyes and a thin build. Semple lived in one of several small residences advertised as retirement homes on Yearley Road and North Lancelot Road in the Muskoka cottage country; those homes were operated by a local family at the time.

Semple’s disappearance became linked to a pattern: three other vulnerable seniors from the same homes — Joan Lawrence, Ralph Bernard Grant and John Leroy Crofts — went missing between 1997 and 1999. The Ontario Provincial Police initially treated the cases separately but later reclassified them as homicides. Extensive searches of the properties formerly owned by the family and surrounding areas have not recovered Semple’s remains, and the properties now have different owners with no connection to the events.

The OPP has continued public appeals and the cases have drawn media attention, including a CBC podcast. Can anyone with information about Semple or those retirement homes around Huntsville in 1997–1999 come forward to help these families?