Lisa Jean Somerton was 21 when she vanished from Ottawa, Ontario, in the winter of 1988. Reports differ on the precise timeline: a roommate last saw her on January 27 and she was officially considered missing around February 4. At the time she was described as slender, 5 feet 8 inches, with reddish-brown hair, blue eyes and distinctive tattoos including a scorpion on her left shoulder, a spider-scorpion on her left thigh and bracelet tattoos on her left wrist and ankle.

The last confirmed sighting placed her outside 1220 Merivale Road getting into a black sports car occupied by two others. She had been due to testify against a former boyfriend who faced assault charges; those charges were withdrawn after she disappeared. Investigators explored the possibility she left voluntarily, but her family rejects that idea and the ex-boyfriend was ultimately ruled out as a suspect. A reported sighting at a North Carolina amusement park was never confirmed, and DNA comparisons to remains recovered from Robert Pickton’s property did not provide answers.

Her disappearance was one of three young women from Ottawa who went missing over a 23-day span that winter; no official link has been established. The investigation remains open. Did anyone who knew Lisa, lived near Merivale Road in 1988, or recall a black sports car in late January remember seeing her that day?