Jayda Noyes, Daily Herald
Justin Goodin said he was with missing 24-year-old Travis MacDonald in the early hours of Monday morning shortly before he disappeared.
RCMP have declared the disappearance of the Stony Rapids man suspicious after locating his truck off of Highway 2 towards St. Louis.
Goodin explained the circumstances and how they ultimately lost touch.
The two decided to take a road trip through the mountains of British Columbia with MacDonald’s truck. Goodin had just sold MacDonald the truck.
The 1991 blue and grey GMC extended cab was in proper condition until they reached Kindersley on their way back, when it started having transmission problems.
“I didn’t sell him a broken truck. It made us all through B.C. and then we started having transmission leaks out of one of the seals,” he said.
Eventually, Goodin took his girlfriend’s car and was following MacDonald’s truck on Highway 11, travelling from Saskatoon to Prince Albert.
“When we left Hague, when I last (saw) him, we were driving close to each other and then as we got closer to P.A., (we became further apart),” he explained.
Hague is about an hour outside of the city.
“I was coming up behind (a) vehicle and I thought that was Travis, so I started flashing my lights to pull him over to check how the transmission was doing, and then here I was just following a car into town, following a black car into P.A.”
Goodin estimates this mixup would’ve happened around 3:30 or 4 a.m.
When he got to the parking lot where the two had planned to meet, MacDonald was nowhere to be found. He didn’t have a phone so the two had no way to connect.
He said he then got a Facebook message from someone who had found the truck, asking him if it was his.
“Right there and then I reported it to the police as suspicious,” he said.
He emphasized his feelings of stress from continuous questions filling his head.
“He knew I was following him because he knew that he might not make it with that transmission leak…That’s what I don’t get.”
“Was he forced off the road or what was his intentions?” he asked. “That’s the answers that I’m looking for.”
In hopes of finding those answers, Goodin is taking part in a search to locate MacDonald.
“As strange and suspicious as it feels, and it feels like I’ve got the world on me and I’ve gotta pull through and work with the family and do anything in my power that I can to help them out,” he said, adding he’s been close with MacDonald’s entire family for a long time.
MacDonald is described as 175 cm tall, weighing 82 kg, light brown eyes, with short black hair on the sides and longer on the top.
At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing blue jeans, a grey shirt, a black zip up Burton jacket, black DC shoes with orange laces and sunglasses.
On Tuesday, Travis’ brother Harley posted to Facebook, saying the vehicle was found “in the middle of the grid road.”
“It’s not like him to not call home or message,” he said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Prince Albert RCMP at (306) 765-5500, their local police service, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.saskcrimestoppers.com.
