The area around a tranquil suburb in Thorold has become a key location in the search for answers to what happened to missing St. Catharines military veteran Katrina Blagdon.
Speaking to ThoroldToday at a Rolling Meadows parking lot, where a two-dozen strong search party gathered on Saturday, Katrina's oldest sister Kelly Blagdon said information about Katrina's cellphone has led the effort to Thorold South.
Through a professional, privately retained by the family, Blagdon said the family has learned that Katrina's cellphone pinged off a cell tower in the area on January 2–two days after she went missing.
"While it was not active, its last location was pinged in Thorold," Kelly Blagdon said. "The location tracker was on, and that is why we now separate our time between Thorold and the area she was last seen."
The last confirmed sighting of Blagdon was at Firehouse Subs on Fourth Avenue in St. Catharines–a short distance from her home, where she was recorded by security cameras picking up food, together with her boyfriend, around 6 p.m. on Dec. 31.
Family was told that she was noticed missing after having gone to bed later that evening. None of her personal belongings, aside from the clothes she was believed to be wearing, were missing.
The phone signal, and a Facebook login around 3 a.m. on that same day, January 2, now begins to tell a different story about the timeline of her disappearance, said Kelly Blagdon, who said the phone disappeared off the radar just moments after it was remotely located.
"The last thing we were told was that she had her phone go missing with her person,” she said. “It does tell us that she met foul play, and that someone kept her phone, at least for some time."
Family and friends have been puzzled over the sudden disappearance of Katrina Blagdon, a mother-of-two and Canadian Armed Forces veteran of 14 years.
A massive search effort, comprised by friends, volunteers and many ex-military service members, has been underway to keep Blagdon's case alive in hopes of finding answers to her vanishing. A $15,000 reward has been privately instated by the family for information that will lead to her whereabouts.
