Melissa McDevitt: Body of missing woman found a year after her disappearance in Sooke

As they processed what was being said over the phone, Tom and Maggie McDevitt were too shocked to cry, the heavy reality sinking in that their daughter who went missing in Sooke a year ago, finally had been accounted for.

“There actually weren’t tears,” Tom McDevitt told Capital Daily last night from his home in North Carolina.

“There was more disbelief that she has actually been found.”

Melissa McDevitt disappeared last Dec. 9, and Wednesday—three days shy of exactly a year since they last spoke—her parents received a phone call from the RCMP who told them the remains of a woman wearing clothes matching Melissa’s—burgundy-coloured top and blue pants—had been discovered that afternoon.

“It was also great news, because we were not left to speculate about if she was still in harm's way or where she was and what happened to her, and we frankly still don't quite know what happened,” McDevitt told Capital Daily, calling the last 12 months “a year of anguish.”

“Today's a good day because it's the beginning of Melissa’s final journey home.” McDevitt said. “And, frankly, it’s not something that we really ever anticipated would happen.”

Group of searchers found body midday Wednesday

A group that’s been rigorously searching for the woman located the body in Sooke’s Sea to Sea Regional Park, the CRD’s second-largest park, spanning 9,800 acres (3,966 ha) with 57 km of trails, many of which are unmapped, according to the group.

One of the searchers told Capital Daily the park’s terrain is a mixture of moss-covered rocky knolls separated by deep gullies of chest-to-head high salal—rough terrain to trek, and foliage that easily could hide a woman’s remains.

“Hiking off-path can be very challenging,” Clive Webber told Capital Daily, because some areas are difficult to navigate, are lightly used, and “are not generally found on official trail maps.”

The body was discovered midday, said Marsha van Rhyn Henderson, a spokesperson for the group who told Capital Daily it wouldn’t relay any details of the discovery, out of respect for Melissa and her parents.

It’s still not known what happened to the 39-year-old woman but police have ruled out foul play.

"Although a full determination has yet to be made, RCMP do not believe that criminality was involved in the woman's death,” the force said in a release.

“Maybe the coroner will be able to shed some more light on that based on their forensic ability, and maybe not,” McDevitt said. “But from our perspective, it's not nearly as important to know the whys and hows as to just have her back.”

The body was taken to Victoria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital and has since been transported to a hospital in Vancouver, where a post-mortem will be performed before it is flown to the United States and interred at a family plot in Virginia, McDevitt said.

Father suspects his daughter got lost or had medical emergency

Given what he was told about the nature of the state of the body, McDevitt said he doesn’t believe his daughter was attacked by a person or animal. He thinks she may have had a serious medical episode or got lost and succumbed to hypothermia.

He told Capital Daily he could only imagine the temperature continued to drop late that December day and he thinks Melissa, an experienced hiker, “got colder and wetter, and it probably got darker faster than she had anticipated.”

Previous reporting suggested Melissa was neurodivergent—meaning she had a condition that can impair a person’s ability to interact, communicate, or process information—but McDevitt told Capital Daily that’s not accurate.

“That is something that somebody picked up from the RCMP,” he said. “What Melissa had was some cognitive challenges associated with syndromes similar to Asperger’s Syndrome.”

McDevitt said he wasn’t certain how much of a role, if any, that may have played in her disappearance.

“Sometimes her judgment wasn't the best,” he told Capital Daily. “And she would have a hard time recognizing that what is maybe a little more risky than she should do,” but he said he doesn’t think his daughter did anything any differently that day than many others would have.

“I would just characterize it more as judgment, just like a lot of people's judgment, sometimes it was not the best.”

McDevitt said the fact his daughter wasn’t wearing a winter coat or gloves that day suggested she was not intending to hike long or far.

“She didn't have her backpack with water, food, shelter, blankets, sleeping bag—all that stuff was in her car,” he said.

Melissa was supposed to catch a flight to the US from Vancouver two days later but when she didn’t show up, a missing person’s investigation was set in motion Dec. 12.

Massive and prolonged search starts in Sooke

That prompted a series of searches, including one that involved 80 people and 11 organizations—the largest one-day search in the province over the last decade.

There were two main clues: Melissa’s likeness was caught on surveillance video as she walked through an area parking lot, and her car was found parked there.

A social media campaign called “Mindful of Melissa” began, eventually growing to more than 300 members. The group distributed posters, imploring that Melissa surely had to be nearby.

“Please, as you hike in the area, be mindful of Melissa,” the poster read.

As the weeks turned into months, a core group of five probed the vast woodland, seeking signs of the missing woman.

“We were out at least once and up to three times a week since the snow melted in March,” van Rhyn Henderson said in the group’s email to Capital Daily.

“Searches happened whenever two or three people could get together,” she said.

Over the summer, the group held shorter searches on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a longer one on Sundays. In the fall, it added a regular probe on Mondays, she said.

Much of the lead and organization, van Rhyn Henderson said, was taken by hikers Heather and Vince McDonald, and there was a lot of collaboration, including with the Search and Recovery Dog Association of Victoria (SARDAV).

Independent searchers recorded their tracks on GPS and sent them to the group, which never relented in its belief they would find Melissa.

Searchers who helped look for Melissa. Photo: Capital Daily

Family grateful to all who kept Melissa top of mind

McDevitt and his wife Maggie said they want to offer their “heartfelt appreciation” to everyone in the CRD who searched or otherwise kept their daughter in their thoughts and prayers.

“It paid dividends in giving our family Melissa back, and we will forever be indebted to the community for bringing our family back together.”

Our group is experiencing a mix of emotions right now,” Webber said in the email from the search group.

“Obviously, this is a sad moment for us all, but it is also a time of deep reflection and joy that we could play a role in giving Melissa's family the closure they very much needed and deserve.”

Searcher Jamie Cogdill said the profound grief over the unknown has turned to the profound grief of pure loss. “We needed an ending to the story that did not need to be written.”

He said Sooke was Melissa’s happy place. “It is truly fitting her soul found passage in Sooke. She said once … any day in Sooke is a good day.”