In 2019, I was asked to put up a post about Brenda Byman, a 12-year-old girl who went missing from outside Invermere, B.C. on May 7, 1961. Despite one of the biggest searches in the province’s history, no trace of her has ever been found. I read a few newspaper articles, talked to Brenda’s sisters, and wrote up a short post on the anniversary of her disappearance with a photo provided by her family.
Brenda was staying overnight with a friend in Wilmer and had gone hiking the next day with four teenagers—a 15-year-old girl and three boys.
The subtext of the stories was that these teens were somehow responsible for Brenda’s disappearance. What took me completely by surprise was the animosity generated by my post about an event that had occurred over six decades ago.
One person told me to stop spreading “fake news”—I had quoted from stories in the Globe and Mail and the National Post. My short social media post stirred up old arguments, rumours, and even hatred.
As I dug deeper into the story, I realized my critics were right—a lot of misinformation came out when the story first broke and continued uncorrected over the decades. Brenda and the Byman family weren’t the only victims from that day.
Five kids left for a hike and only four returned. Brenda, they say, headed back by herself, and the last thing they heard were voices and a car door slamming up along the road where she was walking.
There are four theories behind Brenda’s disappearance. The first is that she died from exposure or was eaten by an animal. Brenda’s family is convinced that her friends killed her and that their parents hid the body. Brenda’s friends and their families believe that Brenda’s father killed her and then buried her body in a well on his property. The fourth possibility is that Brenda got into a vehicle driven by someone she knew or a stranger. It would explain why not a single trace of her—not a hair or a thread of clothing—was ever found.
Only one of the teens from that day is still alive. I’ve talked to him and to family members of the others. They were all put under intense scrutiny, given polygraph lie detector tests, questioned many times, and forced out of the Columbia Valley.
Brenda’s case is filed as “missing, believed dead” and the tragedy of her disappearance continues to divide the town.
If you have any information about Brenda Byman’s disappearance, call the Columbia Valley RCMP at 250-342-9292 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
- For more information: Cold Case Canada Podcast: The Search for Brenda Byman
Eve Lazarus is a reporter and author, and she hosts and produces the Cold Case Canada true crime podcast. This is an excerpt from Eve’s latest book Cold Case BC: The Stories Behind the Province’s Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Person Cases.
