“Did Not Return in Time for Curfew”: A Descriptive Analysis of Homeless Missing Persons Cases

• Author: Laura Huey,Lorna Ferguson
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567720918640
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023

Original Article

“Did Not Return in Time for

Curfew”: A Descriptive

Analysis of Homeless Missing

Persons Cases

Laura Huey

1

and Lorna Ferguson

1

Abstract

Homeless communities have garnered recent public attention in Canada due to their high rates of

violence, victimization, and being reported as missing. There have been several high-profile cases,

investigations, and inquiries involving missing homeless persons, yet very little is known about what

cases are reported to the police, under what circumstances they go missing, and the outcomes of

those cases. As a result, the purpose of this study is to provide some insights into some of these

unresolved issues by offering an exploratory, descriptive analysis of 291 closed missing person cases

from the records of a municipal police service. What this analysis reveal is a somewhat more

mundane picture. Specifically, results indicate that the majority of missing person reports are of

those who are female and White, have a drug/alcohol addiction, are residing at homeless shelters/

missions, and have a history of being reported as missing. As well, it was revealed that most people

are reported as missing due to shelter/mission reporting issues with curfews and that all are located

alive. This study extends the minimal existing scholarship on the missing homeless population by

providing some preliminary insights on the vulnerabilities and factors that can impact these cases.

Keywords

media violence, violence exposure, criminology, alcohol and drugs, homicide

Over the course of 7 years, several men have disappeared from the Gay Village in the city of

Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One of these men, Dean Lisowick, was a homeless sex worker, who often

relied on the city’s shelters and missions for a bed for the night (Gibson & Matthieu, 2018). His last

reported admission to a shelter was in April 2016, the same month in which he disappeared (Ferreira,

2018). What marked Lisowick’s case as different from those of the other Toronto victims was that

Lisowick was never reported as missing (Ferreira, 2018). However, overall, Lisowick’s case was not

all that unusual: Homeless or temporarily housed individuals have been the victims of other serial

killings, often going unreported when missing, or reports of their missing status appearing to

1

University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Laura Huey, University of Western Ontario, Rm. 5213, Social Sciences Building, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7.

Email: lhuey@uwo.ca

International CriminalJustice Review

ª2020 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567720918640

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2023,Vol.31)101

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