A private investigator hired to help locate a missing Barrie woman has begun work on the case.
After seven months of mystery surrounding the disappearance of Autumn Shaganash after she left a home in Barrie in June 2023, her family hired Present Truth Investigations to work independently of local police.
Shaganash, who was 26 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen leaving the home, located in the Allandale neighbourhood near Burton Avenue and Frank’s Way, on the night of June 9. She was last seen wearing a black hoodie, shorts and Puma sandals, and carrying a black and tan purse.
Derwin Johnson, president of Present Truth Investigations, met with Lili-Anne Moore, Shaganash’s sister, on Jan. 23.
He contacted BradfordToday and InnisfilToday on Friday to discuss the case.
“We reached out to the family, as we saw this case in the news for some time,” Johnson said during a phone interview.
“The family hired us, our agency, to look into the matter because they feel the police are not doing enough. However, we feel the police are doing the best they can.”
A missing person investigation was launched on June 12, when local police were notified of her disappearance. At the time, Barrie police communications coordinator Peter Leon said one of Shaganash’s family members received a text message from her on June 10 but noted she was unreachable after.
Leon said it appeared from investigative resources that are available to police that Shaganash had “vanished into thin air,” adding her social media activity had ceased following her disappearance.
Investigators “pinged her cellphone” — a method of determining the estimated current location of a cellphone by using GPS data or by using cell-tower triangulation — and she was last pinged in the Kozlov Street area (where she was last seen), in Sunnidale Park. Sunnidale Park has been searched numerous times by police drones and canine search teams, since her disappearance, but to no avail.
Moore said there has been no telephone or banking activity since her disappearance.
“Her phone is still off. It hasn’t been turned on since June 10,” she said.
The detective firm is in the initial steps of its investigation.
Johnson says the first steps of that effort entails taking a look at all the evidence of the obtained video footage, witness statements and some of the interactions the family has had to this point.
Speaking with police is on his list as well.
“We have yet to sit down with the lead detective with the Barrie Police Service, and revisiting certain addresses and that sort of thing,” he said.
Asked about the level of police co-operation he expects, he said it depends on the police service, but the trend of late is privacy.
“Typically, municipal police services and provincial (police) will not divulge too much information, because whatever information they have, they don’t want that information to get leaked and undermine their investigative efforts,” said Johnson.
“They typically don’t share too much, so we would be independent and kind of collaborative in this effort. If we do come across a particular lead, we will be sharing it with the Barrie Police Service.”
Johnson feels it shouldn’t hamper their own effort.
From a legal perspective, police have more advantages in terms of wiretaps and other investigative measures.
“As private investigators, we can’t do wiretaps, so we’ll do our due diligence and run down all the leads and evidence that we have,” he said. “A lot of our investigators are former law enforcement officers. We’ll do the best that we can and let the results show.”
During Johnson’s recent sit-down with Moore, he basically started from square one.
“We got an overview of who Autumn was, and her background growing up, and circumstances leading up to the date in question, and also who she allegedly interacted with at that time,” he said.
The family has provided evidence to Johnson they have obtained independent of the police.
“That information has been quite helpful to start us in the right direction,” he said.
“They found video surveillance footage from a residential home (which was shown on TV news) showing Autumn walking with a friend of hers, but the family has obtained additional video that they are kind of holding close to their chest," Johnson added. "They’ve shared (it) with us, and we are analyzing that video now.”
Johnson claimed the video footage shows the friend Shaganash was seen with at the time of her disappearance.
He said he does not know if police have been given the additional video footage.
As for the circumstances of her going missing, he said, “I know that it has been hinted at in the news that it is possibly human trafficking.
“We haven’t done our due diligence quite yet to ascertain if that is, in fact, a potential end result, so to speak, but the fact that she disappeared suddenly is not indicative of human trafficking,” Johnson explained.
“Usually, with human trafficking, there is a grooming process. They’re showering with gifts. There’s some sort of threads that connect the alleged victim to the perpetrators,” he added.
“In this case, Autumn has just disappeared without a trace. It’s not typical of what we would see in human trafficking. That doesn’t mean that it is not plausible that it could be.”
Johnson says he’s confident about his firm’s investigative abilities, and the former law enforcement officers who have a wealth of different experiences.
“We’ve investigated different cases where people are missing and otherwise,” he said.
“We are well equipped to dot the Is and cross the Ts.”
Despite everything, Moore said in a recent interview, she and her family are remaining hopeful her sister will be returned, safe, to them one day.
“We really miss her. She was like a second mom to my girls. She loved them very much and she would never run away from us. She was always in contact with family (and) if she went out, she would text us,” said Moore. “This is very out of character. Something happened and someone has her. I just hope she’s found safe and alive.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of the private investigator.
