Emma Fillipoff Missing in Canada Since 2012 -- Victoria, Vancouver Island
Author: Shane Lambert
Original time of writing: December 22nd, 2020
Emma Fillipoff is a missing person, Vancouver Island's best-known case of the last decade. Perhaps the case of Michael Dunahee is a higher-profile case from the same area, however, his case is much older. Emma has been missing since as far back as November 28th, 2012, although there is a chance that she was seen a day after that.
- Missing Person: Emma Fillipoff
- Last seen: November 28th, 2012 by police officers or the next day at 515am by another witness.
- Location: Near The Empress hotel in Victoria, BC on Nov 28, 2012 in the evening OR in the View Royal area of Victoria the next day (Craigflower Road and Admirals Road near a Petro Canada station). I do consider the latter to be a credible sighting.
- Height: 5'5"
- Weight: slim build
- Hair: long, blond/brown
- Clothing: camouflage pants, carrying an orange purse
- Age: 26 years old at the time of her disappearance
Early Journalism Coverage
The following article is the first one I found in the Victoria Colonist regarding Emma Fillipoff's disappearance. The article doesn't suggest much concern and just contains basic details. The one that follows is much longer and shows an increase in concern for the missing woman.
Emma Fillipoff Fri, Nov 30, 2012 – 4 · Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Emma Fillipoff Thu, Dec 13, 2012 – 4 · Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Possible sighting
A man who only identified himself as William believes that he saw Emma Fillipoff in the early hours of November 29th, 2012. This man didn't come forward with this information until 2018, out of fear that being the last person to see Emma alive would make him a suspect in her disappearance. In truth, that is a valid concern.
According to William, Emma was distraught, she jumped out in the road as he drove, she seemed to be concerned about something that he could not see, and he dropped her off at Craigflower Road and Admirals Road near a Petro Canada station.
He claimed that, while walking, she carried her shoes in her hands. This alleged drop-off took place at 515 AM.
He claimed that, while walking, she carried her shoes in her hands. This alleged drop-off took place at 515 AM.
I do consider this sighting to be credible in the sense that I think William was being honest. His concern of being considered a suspect in her disappearance is valid. With that concern in mind, he still came forward. My opinion is that he was obeying his conscience when he did so.
Opinion and Commentary: Emma Fillipoff's Missing Person Case
Maternal Intuition as a Key Indicator
In this case, I think most avenues point to suicide. I believe it is telling that the mother sensed something in her daughter and flew out from Ottawa to Victoria on the very day that Emma went missing.
It's also telling that the mother, previously, declined to act on similar impulses. Something in her interaction with Emma triggered an urgency. I think these kinds of insights can be wrongly downplayed at times.
Barefoot Behavior: A Cry for Help or an Escape?
Furthermore, Emma was seen walking barefoot in downtown Victoria and that is a clue. It may sound odd, but I do have an opinion on missing people who were seen walking barefoot close to the time of their disappearances.
Partly, it looks a little mentally distraught and this may have been a 'call for help' before suicide. In fact, her barefoot walking caused a friend to call the police. Victoria is the mildest part of Canada, but you still wouldn't walk barefoot there in late November, let alone at other times of the year.
Conversely, sometimes people who walk barefoot, I think, are doing it because they want to leave somewhere without anyone knowing that they left. Missing shoes are clues that someone has left the building.
She did seem to be concerned over being followed, as the footage of her before her disappearance suggests. Emma might have been out barefoot because she wanted someone at the homeless shelter to think she had not left the building -- and leaving her shoes behind could help with that. This would be consistent behavior by someone who thought that she was being stalked.
But thirdly, Emma was poor. If her shoes bothered her feet, then she probably couldn't afford new ones. Someone might walk barefoot if the shoes the person owned were rubbing against wounds in a painful way.
Evidence Aligning with Suicide
Getting back to the chances of suicide, it should not be ignored that the people at the shelter that she stayed at (Sandy Merriman House) thought that she was "a danger to herself" (Dec 13, 2012, article above). There's definitely an alignment between her behavior, the actions of the relative who knew her best, and the opinions of the people who saw her in the days before she disappeared. Furthermore, that she lost (or discarded) her prepaid credit card shows some indifference to her economic situation.
Paranoia and Environmental Context
That William claimed she seemed scared of something that he could not see might be regarded as consistent with her behavior as noted from previous times. The footage of her acting scared to exit buildings has been taken to mean that she was worried about someone following her. That could simply be symptomatic of being a pretty woman living in a shelter -- a place that will have a fair amount of questionable people.
I've lived on Vancouver Island for about seven years of my life and downtown Victoria hasn't always been a comfortable place. At times, it has been a very dodgy environment and I can only imagine how many times someone as attractive as Emma might have had someone creepy genuinely watching her footsteps. That could create paranoia and her strange behavior as caught by the videotape could just be an extension of her high-risk living environment.
Possible Locations and Environmental Challenges
According to William, Emma wanted to go to Colwood. I think this is the area where a credit card she owned was found.
Also, there is a ton of hiking in the greater area where she disappeared, including at Thetis Lake Regional Park. Furthermore, there are inlets from the Salish Sea. If she is found, then I suspect that it will be in one of the following areas:
- Thetis Lake Regional Park or south
- Esquimalt Lagoon Migratory Bird Sanctuary or north
- To the west of the above locations but not further west than the below locations
- Mount Wells Regional Park
- Goldstream Provincial Park, near the Langford entrance
- If she entered saltwater, then finding her will be very difficult
Hiking these areas in Victoria would be more arduous in November than in the summer. The trails would be heavily puddled. To me, that suggests if she went into the forest, then she didn't go deep. In the summer, the trails are popular. I've written about some of them in a hiking publication I have.
Dismissing Red Herrings
As for the 'fluff' around this case, I disregard two things.
As stated, I'm not taking her preoccupation with being followed to mean that she was being followed. That's a red herring, in this case, I think. But I do think she might have thought she was being followed.
Secondly, I disregard the man in Vancouver who ripped her poster down and claimed to be her boyfriend to be anything of substance. My main reason for that is that the event happened in 2014 and we're in 2025, at the time of updating this case. I think if Emma was, in fact, the man's boyfriend, some kind of sighting would have happened by now.
I do like what Grok, X's artificial intelligence stated when I asked it about the credibility of Green Shirt Guy in this case: "The focus on Green Shirt Guy might be a convenient pivot to reinvigorate a stalled case rather than a well-substantiated lead" (asked Grok on March 6th, 2025).
The way I see it, the police don't have a lead in this case and it's a case that has received a lot of media attention. They are just playing their hand with what they've got.
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