Amanda McAdam has spent nearly a year and a half wondering where her brother could be.
“For him being gone and nobody seeing or talking to him, for me and a couple of my other siblings, we kind of agreed that he’s no longer with us,” she said.
“It’s something we just kind of accept, but we just want to be able to find him and find peace with it.”
Henry McAdam was last seen at a business in Prince Albert’s Cornerstone area in mid-July 2022. According to police, his family reported him missing about a month later, on Aug. 24.
He was 48 years old at the time.
Despite searches by family, police, search and rescue volunteers and the Prince Albert Grand Council, McAdam’s whereabouts remains unknown. About a month ago, police alerted the public of their presence in a wooded area near Princess Auto as they conducted a search for Henry.
In an emailed statement last week, the Prince Albert Police Service said “numerous searches” have taken place within the city.
“The missing person investigation remains open while police continue to attempt to locate Henry and communicate with Henry McAdam’s family,” reads the statement.
Amanda said Henry would rarely travel outside of the city. The furthest he would go was to Witchekan Lake First Nation – about an hour and a half west of Prince Albert – to see his oldest sister. He wouldn’t even travel further north to visit his partner, she said.
“PA is his home,” said Amanda. “He would not go anywhere far.”
‘He was happy; he always loved joking around’
Amanda is Henry’s youngest sister out of 12 siblings from Big River First Nation. The two weren’t in touch much growing up, she said, but grew closer as they became adults and both lived in Prince Albert.
“We were all in foster care. I was in foster care since I was a year and a half old,” she explained.
“We were all separated. Growing up, the only time I remember us all really being together as siblings was when we went to go visit our mom.”
Henry battled an alcohol addiction, but that didn’t define him, said Amanda. Even under the influence, his caring and humorous personality shined through.
“He was happy; he always loved joking around. I’d never seen him be mean to anybody. He was such a kind person,” she said.
“He would always want to come visit me, come see the kids. He’d try to get us to go visit him…He really cared about his siblings.”
Amanda recalled being out on a walk with her brother, when he grew impatient waiting for a stream of traffic to slow so they could cross the street.
“He was kind of under the influence. He was like ‘Let’s go’ and I was like ‘No, just wait until the traffic slows down,’ so he went in the middle of the road and he stopped all of the vehicles. I was like ‘Henry, no get out of there,’ and he was like ‘No, I’m not leaving until my little sister goes across the road,’” she said.
She laughed as she recalled apologetically waving at the vehicles as she crossed.
Looking back, Amanda said she struggles with her response to Henry’s addiction – since that’s how they lost their mother.
“I hated the fact that it seemed like he was getting worse into his drinking. I’d always get mad at him,” she said.
“Now that he’s gone, it makes it 10 times harder. I wish I’d never got mad at him so much, but that was just me telling him that I loved him and stop doing that. I don’t want you ending up like our mom.”
In a news release, police described Henry as about 5’8” tall and 157 lbs, with short black hair and a moustache. He was last seen wearing a black bunnyhug and blue jeans.
Anyone with information on his activities around the time he went missing, or his current location, is asked to call Prince Albert police or Crime Stoppers.
