Wayback Wednesday, sponsored by Jamie Lockwood, broker/owner of Sutton Group Muskoka Realty!
This shed, discovered by the OPP in 1998, was rented by Joan Lawrence from the Laan family for more than $600/month. She disappeared just weeks after the discovery. (OPP photo)
The mystery of the disappearance of Joan Lawrence (also known as the cat lady) in the late 1990s and several other seniors from the former Cedar Pines Lake Christian Retirement Home, run by the Laan family on Highway 518 just north of Huntsville, has never been solved. The OPP suspects they were murdered, although their bodies were never recovered. According to documents obtained by a joint investigation between the Fifth Estate and CBC, one of the residents, possibly Lawrence, had complained to police about the conditions of the home. When the OPP investigated, one of the most startling discoveries they made was this 8×10 shed where Lawrence, who had become rather fond of cats and looked after about 30 of them, had been living. She was being charged more than $600/month to live in this decrepit shed with her cats on one of the Laan properties. It was not insulated and had no plumbing. Shortly after the discovery in 1998, Lawrence would go missing.
See more Wayback Wednesday photos HERE.
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I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Joan from time to time in the past and she was a very intelligent lady. I’ve always hoped that her disappearance would be solved. Thank you for posting this to keep Joan’s memory alive and maybe one day we can lay this tragedy to rest.
The OPP never seriously investigated this as she was just a homeless person.
We were interviewed at one point years later by an OPP investigator who was disinterested and uncaring.
Too bad she was poor, a wealthy person would have gotten more attention.