On the evening of September 26th, 2001, Jesokah had dinner with a male friend at his trailer before making her way to the corner of Sooke Road and Idlemore Road. There she was last seen around 9:30 p.m. as she stood outside of Saseenos Elementary School. That Wednesday evening she waited for a bus that would take her home, roughly two kilometres away to the 6600 block of Sooke Road.
Jesokah had been attending Edward Milne Community School where she was an 11th-grade student with plans of becoming a nurse. Jesokah had been living with a roommate in an apartment on Kaltasin Road only a few blocks from her family’s home. Despite living on her own, Jesokah continued to have a good relationship with her parents and two brothers.
However, Jesokah never made it to her apartment.
Jesokah was described as a petite girl, only standing 5′ 5″ and weighing a slender 88 to 110 lbs, with blue eyes and long, straight blonde hair. Jesokah was last seen in a black bomber-style jacket over a “Doors” t-shirt, blue jeans and black running shoes.
The Investigation
She missed an appointment with her probation officer in the week that followed her disappearance. Shortly before she had brought home a six-month-old German Shepard puppy, whom she named Daphne, and did not make arrangements for anyone to care for her dog before vanishing. Since that fateful evening, she has not reached out to family or friends.
While Jesokah appeared to have vanished on Wednesday, it wasn’t until Friday that her parents began to worry something had happened to their daughter. Joocelan Adkens, Jesokah’s mother, checked her daughter’s home and the next day she spoke with Jesokah’s roommate. Her roommate confirmed that she hadn’t seen Jesokah for three days.
Jesokah’s family stated that the disappearance was out of character, while Staff Sgt. Don Brown pointed out that there was no evidence that she had run away and she had not withdrawn money prior to that evening. Police confirmed there was no suicide note left behind that would indicate the teen had taken her own life.
“Her little backpack is at the house, all of her credentials, all of her ID,” Clayten Adkens, Jesokah’s father told reporters. “It’s like she just disappeared.”
It was noted that Jesokah had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend the week she had disappeared, however, her parents also explained that this wasn’t unusual for the young couple. However, The Province reported that Jesokah had recently broken up with her boyfriend and was hoping to mend things.
The friend that Jesokah had dinner with the evening she vanished was interviewed by police who stated he was not a suspect.
The bus driver that evening did not remember Jesokah getting on the bus and her father, Clayten Adkens, stated that Jesokah had frequently hitchhiked in the past even though her parents had discouraged it. The Times Colonist reported that Jesokah had last been seen hitchhiking in front of the Forest Lumber Mill, roughly 350 meters from the bus stop she had been reportedly waiting at.
The Search
Staff Sgt. Don Brown requested both the Victoria RCMP serious cr*imes unit and the West Shore RCMP assist with the missing person case. All three detachments participated in the search. Two tracking dogs were brought in but they were unable to follow the young girl’s scent. While Search and Rescue officials along with volunteers searched the ground, drivers conducted a search of the Sooke River Bridge and Diversion Dam. A helicopter participated in the search from the air, checking the area between Sooke and Port Renfrew, but no evidence of the teen was found and by October police had begun to suspect foul play was involved in the teen’s disappearance.
“We have to deal with it as a homicide until we know otherwise,” stated Sooke RCMP Staff Sgt. Don Brown. “We’re still very much hoping it will turn out otherwise, but for the moment we have to take the most serious view of it.”
Officers commented on how large the search area was and how difficult it would be to conduct a larger search.
“We’ve got a thousand square miles,” explained Staff Sgt. Don Brown. “Do you know how long it’s going to take a group to search a thousand square miles?”
The Adkens family stated that they felt the police had been thorough but that an extensive search would be hindered by kilometres of rough terrain.
“I’d be pulling every root out of the ground to look but I don’t know where to go,” explained Jesokah’s father, Clayten Adkens.
Still, despite poor weather, 130 locals and friends continued to search for the missing teen over a month later.
“I was searching in water p to my waist for hours,” explained a 16-year-old Carly Barber who was an acquaintance of Jesokah’s.
While police had already spoken with the bus driver, they continued to conduct dozens of interviews. Posters were distributed to locals and plastered around the southern Vancouver Island city and friends searched the fields in the area. The RCMP recieved as many as 300 tips that they followed up on and stated they had a few people of interest but no suspects regarding the teen’s disappearance. An officer had even flown to a remote cabin that Jesokah had been known to visit on occasion. However, the cabin was empty and there was no sign that the 17-year-old had visited recently.
However, Jesokah’s parents expressed that they believed members of the public knew where their daughter was.
“I want her back real bad. Somebody knows where she is. Could they just let us have her back?” Asked Clayten Adkens in 2001.
There were a few sightings of Jesokah reported following her disappearance, however, they were never confirmed. RCMP Cpl. Dan Bazowski stated that the sightings appeared to be a case of individuals mistakenly identifying someone else as Jesokah, while some witnesses had struggled to confirm the dates they had seen her. Regardless, the reported sightings did not lead investigators to the missing teen.
The Adkens family publically admitted that they believed someone had taken their daughter.
“It bothers me that somebody out there, without a doubt, has taken her and they’ll do it again if they haven’t done it before,” stated Clayten Adkens.
In November a $10,000 reward was offered by The Missing Children Society of Canada regarding any information that led to authorities finding Jesokah. The RCMP continued to appeal to the public for information regarding Jesokah, however, they also requested information from anyone who had had a bad hitchhiking experience recently. The Missing Children Society of Canada continued to circulate as many as 2,500 posters of Jesokah around Victoria, Vancouver and as far as Kelowna.
In early December a re-enactment was aired on CH TV in the hope of bringing attention to the missing teen once again.
A month and a half after Jesokah’s disappearance a 19-year-old woman was hitchhiking along Sooke Road in mid-December when she was stranded overnight on a logging road. Staff Sgt. Don Brown described the woman as “visibly shaken and weak and close to hypothermia…” Only a few days later a man was arrested for sleeping in his vehicle, which matched the description provided by the 19-year-old. At the time the Sooke RCMP and the Lake Cowichan RCMP were investigating if the two incidents were related.
In May 2002, students at Edward Milne Community School honoured Jesokah on her 18th birthday by wearing yellow ribbons, while a barbeque was organized as a fundraiser to raise money for the ongoing search.
By 2003 Jesokah’s parents had given up hope that they would find their daughter alive and well.
“What’s been done is wrong and was possibly a mistake and we know the world’s not perfect. But everybody deserves a proper resting spot,” Clayten Adkens stated during a press release.
“We need to have our baby back so we can have closure,” explained Jocelan Adkens.
In February of 2003, Sooke businesses pledged an additional $15,000 towards the original $10,000 reward offered by the Missing Children Society of Canada, while Rob Slugget the president of Harbour Chamber of Commerce had raised another $5,000. In the year and half that had passed half a dozen men had been given lie detector tests as the RCMP continued to search for answers.
A memorial was set up along Sooke Road for the missing teen with a sign stating “In Memory of Our Good Friend Jesokah.”
By the two-year anniversary of Jesokah’s disappearance, the reward was raised to $32,000 in total. Both of Jesokah’s parents continued to struggle with the stress of their daughter missing. At some point, Clayten Adkens took a break from his trucking job.
“As a father,” stated Clayten Adkens, “you get a lot of anger. You get a lot of frustration. Confusion. Depression.”
While Jocelan Adkens took a month off from her job as a nurse caring for the elderly for her own mental health.
“You try to find some closure, and just accept the fact that she may never come back,” Jocelan Adkens explained, “and try to find some peace with that.”
Five years later, Tommy Johnston who had been close with Jesokah and had helped organize local search parties when the teen had original disappeared, continued to circulate posters of Jesokah. Even six years later the Victoria Serious Cri*mes unit continued to offer a $10,000 reward. A garden was planted at the memorial site where Jesokah was last seen and even seven years later Jocelan Adkens continued to tend to it in honour of her daughter.
“I try to make it there twice a week for watering for sure,” Jocelan Adkens stated. “It gets pretty shabby fast in the hot sun.”
After so many years, the Adkens expressed uncertainty. While they didn’t want to move in the hope that Jesokah might return, they also wanted to move away from the painful reminders of their missing child.
Even 18 years later, the community continued to share theories with the press. Tommi Johnston, a friend of Jesokah’s, stated that Jesokah had been known to party.
“She hung around with some of the worst people, all the bums. She’d sit under the trees and talk with them for hours,” Tommi Johnston told the Sooke News Mirror. “There was a whole crew of them. They called themselves the Skids and they drank, did drugs, and were taken advantage of by older men who supplied them with alcohol and drugs.”
According to the Sooke News Mirror, Jesokah had been known to spend time with an individual only known as No Nose who had a reputation as a drug dealer. Tommi Johnston stated that Jesokah had stopped taking drugs but that she owed No Nose $80 for cocaine. The unidentified drug dealer later died in Alberta.
Tommi Johnston also shared a strange experience that happened shortly after Jesokah disappeared. According to Tommi Johnston a woman named Polly had been involved in every search.
“I found out that it was Polly and her boyfriend and another man who had been with Jesokah the night she disappeared. She’d never told any of us that she even knew Jesokah and when I confronted her, she left the group and we never heard from her again.”
Tommi Johnston’s daughter, Clara, also commented on the strange instance.
What is certain is that Jesokah remains missing even 23 years later. Jesokah was born in 1984 and would be 40 years old today.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Jesokah Adkens please contact one of the following:
- Sooke RCMP 250–642–5241 Reference Case#: 2001–4195
- Cr*ime Stoppers: 1–800–222-TIPS(8477)
