The search for Angel Carlick has moved to the streets of Edmonton.
Rumours have placed the missing 19-year-old in the West Edmonton Mall, according to an Edmonton newspaper.
The story quotes family members who are fearful she is living on the city’s streets.
Carlick, who was last spotted in downtown Whitehorse, has been missing since May 31.
Since her disappearance, rumours have swirled around town. The sighting in Edmonton is the latest in a long list.
“There have been rumours for four months now,” said Vicki Durrant, head of the Blue Feather Youth Centre where Carlick worked.
“If it’s a rumour it’s just one of probably 15 we’ve be hearing since May. No one has ever actually come forward to say they have seen her — it’s always, ‘I heard she was here or there.’”
When she disappeared, Carlick left behind two paycheques, missed a graduation ceremony and abandoned a younger brother she was planning to adopt.
Carlick spent time homeless and out of school, but started putting her life back together over the past two years.
She began working at the Blue Feather with Durrant. She found a place to live and was ready to graduate.
“We’ve heard tons of rumours about her whereabouts,” said Durrant. “And there’s another one that says someone is starting these rumours to throw the police offtrack.
“Where to you begin? You can’t believe any of them.”
Whitehorse RCMP has sent posters and information about Carlick to RCMP and city police forces in Alberta and BC.
Whitehorse RCMP are working hard, but aren’t any closer to finding Carlick than they were in May, said Durrant
While she is satisfied with RCMP effort is to find Carlick, it’s the people officers are trying to question that disappoint Durrant.
“These are high-risk people and some of them I’m sure are afraid to open their mouths,” she said. “The people we work with are tight-lipped. I’m sure this has been a difficult case to investigate because of that.”
Media reports from Edmonton quoted Carlick family members as fearful she could be working the streets in Edmonton or Vancouver, where family have searched “the strolls” for the teen.
Durrant doesn’t believe Carlick could be forced into prostitution.
A news story also had Carlick using the alias “Candice Boyle,” which could not be confirmed by the News.
“I’ve never heard that and I have no idea where that information came from,” said Durrant, but added Carlick does have family in Vancouver and possibly Edmonton, and that could mean someone attempted to hunt for her on the stroll.
Durrant wonders if the community has done enough to find Carlick.
“What are we dealing with as a community?” she said. “That’s the most unsettling thing. One of our youth just vanished off the face of the Earth and what can we do as a community? Someone knows something and isn’t saying a thing.
“People would rather just stick their heads in the sand and pretend everything is alright in this city.”