RCMP suspect foul play in disappearance of Jennifer Provencal

RCMP say they suspect foul play in the disappearance of a 51-year-old mother of three, last seen in February.

The mystery of Jennifer Provencal’s disappearance is deepened by the fact she wasn’t reported missing for nearly three months, when her absence was discovered by a sister living across the country.

Provencal was last seen Feb. 5 in the vicinity of her rural property in the small community of Forest Grove, outside 100 Mile House, about 300 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

Her husband, Thomas Boulding, says they had an argument and he left their home. When he returned, she was gone, he said.

“Her walking out, she has done it a few times,” he said in an interview with CBC News in September. He said in the past, she has left and then eventually contacted him to pick her up from wherever she was staying.

“I was assuming this was going to be the case, eventually,” he said.

The couple live in an off-grid property with just a landline and no cellphones. As a result, her sister Johanne Provencal, who lives in Montreal, said she didn’t know she was missing until weeks later, when she left a message on the answering machine and got a call back from Boulding.

“He said that she wasn’t there, she hadn’t been there since February, and I don’t know what happened,” she said.

Provencal said she was in shock and it wasn’t until talking to other family members that she realized they should file a report with police, which she did on April 21.

She said she doesn’t understand why nobody else filed a police report, while Boulding says it’s his belief that his wife is gone of her own choosing.

“She’s a strong-willed, independent woman,” he said.

He also said he was calling police to make his own report in April, only to discover his sister-in-law had done so when RCMP showed up at his door.

He said the day she went missing, they’d had a major argument, “I yelled some horrible things at her,” and she left while he was out doing chores.

But her sister says it’s out of character for her to simply disappear without telling anyone.

“I don’t think she would want the people she loves to be worried,” she said. “There is no way Jennifer would not call me.”

Provencal doesn’t have a cellphone, and she left her purse.

The RCMP major crimes unit is investigating and confirmed that foul play is suspected.

Police have also searched her property, including with dogs, and Boulding said he has shared all the information he can, including personal belongings and computers, so RCMP might be able to get a lead.

Police are asking anyone who might have information to contact them.

Johanne Provencal is hoping for the same.

“I just want to find out what happened to my sister and honour her life,” she said.