March 26, 2004 The history of a mystery

People ask me where I get my ideas for the articles I write.  There are several ways and today I will look at a mystery as example of one way.  Basically what I do when the germ of an idea comes along is I set up a file and add things to the file until I feel I have enough interesting information to write my usual 1000 words. 

For example I know people are interested in mysteries like how Tom Thomson died in 1917.  I recently noted a new Tom Thomson Murder Mystery Game in one of my columns.  (see the current issue of Cottage Life Magazine).  Well in November 2002 a man emailed me to tell me he had lived near Trout Lake and used to go to a convenience store across from the North Bay Jail in the 1950’s, before he moved away.  The storekeepers were Mr. & Mrs. Campbell.  He said, “The Campbells were great people.  They were always cheerful and friendly and they treated kids on an equal footing with adults.  We looked up to them as being the perfect grown-ups.” 

He then went on to say that he had gone to school with the daughters of the Campbells and talked about the mysterious disappearance of the parents.  He asked me “Has that mystery been solved yet, and would it be possible to have an article on their disappearance?” 

Newspaper headlines and photo about the Campbell mystery.

I didn’t do anything about the story until last July when the television crew from the Creepy Canada series came to North Bay to do an item on the Campbells.  The Nugget did a story about the visit reviewing some of the history. 

Last September author Richard Dominico formerly of North Bay published a novel called Beare Parts and came to North Bay on a book tour.  The Nugget did a feature length article on Richard who had worked at the Nugget as a linotype operator when the Campbells disappeared.  The article said that “at the time he had no idea the story would inspire him later in life”.  In the novel Dominico has a character who went missing on Trout Lake reappearing in Toronto as a part of the book’s mystery. 

Last November there was a story in the newspaper that Shirley and Harold Conrad of Trout Creek had been married for 50 years.  One paragraph in the story stated that Shirley’s parents had disappeared on Trout Lake in 1956. 

With all of this information in hand I asked my neighbour Bernadette Kerr if her mother Monica Kunkel in Powassan would have anything in her scrapbook collection on the Campbell disappearance.  She had several articles including one on the 32^nd anniversary of the disappearance and one on the 35^th anniversary. 

The Mystery 

On May 29, 1956 Allan Campbell (45) and his wife Margaret (44) took a day off from the operation of their convenience store and service station.  They left their house on Lake Heights Road at the west end of Trout Lake and went to open their cottage on Centennial Crescent.  They took their Pomeranian dog Trickie along.  They left Joan, the youngest of their 4 daughters as she went off to school and said they would be home for supper.  When 10 year old Joan came home her parents were not there and by 10 o’clock she went to her neighbours.  Early the next morning sister June age 17 who had been visiting a neighbour overnight borrowed a truck and drove to the cottage.  The car was in the drive and the house was open.  The wood stove had been started and a half-cooked meal was left. 

Looking outside June could see that the family boat and motor had been removed from the verandah.  There was no sign of her parents.  She returned to town and the police and the rest of the family were called.  Shirley Conrad’s husband Harold and a friend searched the lake the next day expecting to find them on an island or elsewhere. 

The police and the Department of Lands and Forests and others searched the shore.  The police dragged the lake.  The boat, which was “unsinkable” could not be found in spite of all of the help indicated plus 12 search aircraft.  The Campbells, their dog and their boat were never found. 

The police investigated for possible clues checking bank accounts, their safety deposit box, etc.  In 1985 the Nugget received a letter saying the Campbells were murdered and several years later another letter pinpointed a location of the bodies.  They were not there. 

With the story in mind I called Shirley Conrad who, as the older sister has been a spokesperson.  In spite of the pain she generously talked about the experience almost 48 years ago and how the family would like it resolved.  She doesn’t believe strongly in either the accidental or the foul play scenarios since both are possible.  She was not contacted by the people from Creepy Canada Television, but ran across the program accidentally when it was on last fall and was disappointed.  She thinks about the mystery often as the rest of the family does, and hopes there will be some closure by the 50^th anniversary on May 29, 2006. 

The case is still open at the OPP and action would be take immediately if anything new came forward.  And now you know something of the Campbell Mystery, and one of the ways these columns evolve.