For one Indigenous family struggling in poverty in Canada, a rare opportunity to build a more stable life appeared to arrive at exactly the right moment.
Ronald “Ronnie” Jack, 26, had been offered work by a man he met in a bar — a job that reportedly came with fair pay and even childcare for the two young boys he was raising with his wife. To the young father, it must have sounded like the break his family desperately needed.
Excited by the possibility, Ronnie hurried home to tell his wife, Doreen, also 26, and their sons, nine-year-old Russell and four-year-old Ryan. Later that night, the family left with the stranger — a decision that would place the unidentified man at the center of one of Canada’s most unsettling missing persons mysteries.
Nearly four decades later, the 1989 disappearance of the Jack family still weighs heavily on the community of Prince George and remains believed to be Canada’s only unsolved case involving an entire missing family.
A spokesperson for the Prince George RCMP confirmed to Our News Outlet that the investigation is still open, with new tips continuing to arrive over the years.
“It’s a massive investigation that has been open since 1989 and comprises more than 60 banker boxes of investigative product,” the statement said.
“It is one of the larger — maybe the largest — files we carry at this detachment. I also believe this case is the only unsolved missing family case in Canada. It’s very tragic that we still don’t know the whereabouts of this family despite significant efforts by the RCMP, family and other concerned citizens.
“In truth, I don’t think most people really understand the incredible burden of loss families bear in such cases. We’d love to locate them.”
Ronnie Jack, Doreen Jack, and their sons Russell and Ryan, of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, who vanished in 1989.
The family’s disappearance has become one of Prince George, British Columbia’s most enduring mysteries.
Jack Family Vanished After Mysterious Job Offer
The Daily Mail has spoken with various experts and examined troves of documents and reports spanning decades to outline the mystery.
In the evening of August 1, 1989, Ronnie was having drinks at the First Litre Pub, in Prince George, British Columbia.
Recently laid off from his job at a sawmill after injuring his back, his family had been forced to move to Prince George. Doreen had reportedly resorted to stealing cough medicine for the kids. Ronnie allegedly told his sister he was in debt to someone.
But Ronnie’s luck was about to change, or so he thought. Described as ‘desperate to work’ by his mother, he met a man who has still not been identified.
Allegedly in his 30s, between 6ft and 6ft 6in tall, somewhere in the 200-275lbs range, with reddish brown hair, a beard and wearing a cap, this man offered Ronnie and his wife jobs at a logging camp near Cluculz Lake, roughly 25 miles west of Prince George.
The deal was sweetened with the promise of daycare for their children. The seemingly generous man even offered to drive the family there as the Jacks did not have a car.
The only catch? They had to leave immediately.
Ronnie and the man left the pub at about 11.16pm and went to the family’s Strathcona Avenue home.
An ecstatic Ronnie reportedly called his family with the news, telling his mom, Mabel, at 1.21am on August 2 that the four of them would be gone for ten days and were set to return in time for Russell to start school.
Chillingly, Ronnie allegedly told his mother to ‘look for him if he didn’t come back.’
Shortly afterward, the foursome was last seen by other family members getting into the man’s ‘dark colored’ four-wheel pickup truck.
Doreen and her younger son, Ryan.
Sketches of the man who is believed to have taken the Jack family.
Lost First 48 Hours Haunt Jack Family Mystery
The first 48 hours of any investigation are crucial – but for the Jacks, that time was lost. The family was not reported missing until August 25, and the resulting investigation was reportedly meager, with police believing the family had willingly left.
The family was part of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation indigenous community. According to reports, crimes involving the community frequently went uninvestigated due to alleged police bias and a lack of media attention.
In another setback, police mistakenly reported that the family had been found on September 7, further harming the investigation.
Then, in a cruel twist, an unknown man called the Vanderhoof Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from a house party on Sunday, January 28, 1996, claiming that ‘the Jack family are buried at the south end’ of an unspecified ranch before hanging up.
Police issued an appeal for the caller to get back in touch, even releasing audio of the call.
It was determined the caller was at a house in nearby Stoney Creek – but police were unable to track down all the guests.
Chris McDonough is a renowned homicide investigator with the Cold Case Foundation, which provides expertise on unsolved crimes that have exhausted all active leads.
He has consulted on cases including the murder of JonBenét Ramsey and trained members of the Native American Homicide Task Force.
McDonough, who has never worked on the Jack family case, has exposed holes in the original investigation for Our News Outlet – beginning with the three week delay in reporting their disappearance.
‘First of all, we would look at the dynamics of the situation, we would be looking at the financials, the credit card trails, purchases of gas, any kind of video footprint, and questioning who last saw them,’ he said.
‘Serial offenders have traveled through that area, and I would check any recent parolees.
‘We would look at their trusted circle, who would have had a reason to lure them away from a comfortable situation? Were they targeted?
‘We know there are offenders in that area – it’s like a hunter looking through the scope of a rifle and getting the thrill out of pulling the trigger.’
McDonough said he would apply the victim risk continuum – a concept used to assess how a person’s lifestyle, environment and daily activities increase or decrease their probability of becoming a crime victim. It can help determine any vital links between a victim and an offender, he said.
Despite the passage of decades, McDonough believes the case can still be solved.
‘There are multiple blind spots in the investigation,’ he told Our News Outlet. ‘We would need access to case files to reconstruct the timeline, see witness statements and unsearched areas.’
He believes it is ‘very likely’ the offender made the taunting call to police.
A warning sign along a Canada highway known as the Highway of Tears, a 450-mile stretch of road upon which 50 Indigenous women and girls have disappeared or been murdered since 1970. The Jack family’s disappearance has been linked to a multitude of unsolved crimes along that road.
Jack Family Disappearance Linked to Highway of Tears
The Jack family’s disappearance has been linked to a multitude of unsolved crimes on what’s known as the Highway of Tears – a 450-mile stretch of road upon which 50 Indigenous women and girls have disappeared or been murdered since 1970.
People online have speculated that rapist, murderer and suspected serial killer Bobby Jack Fowler should be a suspect in the Jack family case.
In 2012, Fowler was tied by DNA to the 1974 murder of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen along the Highway of Tears.
MacMillen was hitchhiking from her family home in Lac la Hache, British Columbia, to a friend’s home when she vanished.
She was found raped and murdered several miles south of where she was last seen.
Fowler, who died in prison in 2006, was also a strong suspect in the 1973 deaths of at least two other young women, Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington along the stretch of highway.
Weys, 19, was last seen hitchhiking home to Kamloops on October 19, 1973, after finishing a shift as a service station attendant in Clearwater.
Her naked body was discovered in a water-filled ditch off Highway 5 six months later.
Darlington, 19, was last seen alive on November 6, 1973, at the Thompson Pub in Clearwater after hitchhiking into town to meet friends.
She was reportedly seen with an unidentified man with shaggy hair. The next day, her body was found in a city park. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death.
Unsubstantiated rumors have also linked the Jacks’ disappearance to serial killer Robert Pickton, who gruesomely murdered at least 26 women – many of them indigenous and living in poverty – on his Canadian pig farm between 1978 and 2001.
Pickton lured vulnerable women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to his farm, where he raped, tortured and butchered them before feeding their remains to his pigs.
Their remains, or whatever was left of their DNA, were later discovered scattered across the property during a February 2002 police raid.
There is no concrete evidence tying the Jacks to Pickton, and he has never been charged in connection with the family’s disappearance.
There was a glimmer of hope in August 2019 when police conducted searches with ground penetrating radar on Saik’uz First Nation property, south of Vanderhoof. But, again, nothing was ever found.
Remaining family members have never given up on finding them.
Doreen, Ronnie and their children pose for a family photo. Doreen’s sister Marlene has vowed to continue the search for answers.
Sister Vows Never to Give Up Search for Doreen
‘I love my sister with all my heart,’ Doreen’s sister Marlene said in a 2024 interview. ‘I miss her. I’m not giving up. I’m not stopping and I’m not going away. I’m gonna be here. If anyone has any information I’m here.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Jacks’ family members for comment, but has not heard back.
