trevor hamlyn missing – missing person cases

Trevor Hamlyn

(Pepsi)

Trevor Hamlyn was 33 years old when he disappeared on Saturday June 16, 2018 in the area of Imogene Crescent in Paradise, Newfoundland. Earlier that day, Trevor purchased a bottle of Jameson whisky and a two-litre bottle of ginger ale. He was planning on attending a friend’s party that night. Three days later, Trevor’s mom got a call from his roommate saying he hadn’t seen Trevor since Saturday. After his family couldn’t get a hold of him, they reported him missing. Trevor’s case remains unsolved.

About

“People always knew him for his smile. He had a great smile“
Ashley Hamlyn

Trevor

Trevor Hamlyn was born on May 24, 1985 and grew up in a rural area around the Bay in central NL. Trevor and was nicknamed “Pepsi” by friends and family because he always had Pepsi available. His father Bob worked for Browning Harvey, the manufacturer for Pepsi, so Trevor would bring several cans to school everyday. When it was someone’s birthday, he would give them a can.

Trevor has a younger sister, Ashley, and an older brother Geoff. “We had a good relationship because we were only one year apart,” said Ashley.

Trevor was very protective over his little sister. He was always standing up for her and making sure she felt included around his friends. “He would never let anyone say anything bad about me,” she said. “I was a little bit less outgoing, but he was a great brother. He always took care of me… he didn’t announce it and let everyone know, he just did it.”

“We used to get sent to our rooms for time outs, but our rooms were next door to each other, So we’d always send each other notes underneath our doors.” Ashley holds onto many memories with Trevor. Growing up, they took full advantage of living in the outdoors and would often go fishing and quading.

He wasn’t into sports at school, but spent a lot of his spare time hanging out with friends. “Everyone liked him. He had lots of friends” She also describes him as being a “jokester” and always wanting to make people laugh, “not by telling jokes, just the way he was,” she said. “People always knew him for his smile. He had a great smile.”

It was easy for Trevor to make friends, but he struggled in school. Trevor would often skip class and get into trouble, but despite being a “wild child” as Ashley describes, he never wanted to disappoint his mom, Michelle. “He always wanted mom to be proud of him. Everything he did,” she said. Trevor pushed through his challenges at school and was about to graduate, when suddenly, his father passed away of a heart attack three months before the ceremony.

“It was hard [for him] but Trevor pretty much kept everything to himself,” said Ashley. “He wasn’t a conversationalist. He wasn’t a big talker. He was the strong, silent type but always smiling,”

Trevor did not make it to his graduation ceremony, but the following year, it was Ashley’s turn to graduate – and Trevor was right there beside her, supporting her. “He did the father daughter dance with me,” she said. “I didn’t even know he was going to do it, it was just a spur in the moment thing like he just came up to me and said ‘let’s dance’”

SLIDESHOW OF TREVOR AND FAMILY

Career

After high school, Trevor didn’t know what career path to take. He worked a few different jobs including one as a chef, which he really enjoyed. But, he knew it wasn’t a long-term career and wanted to pursue something else. That’s when he got into siding and other home renovation work.

A couple years after graduating high school, Trevor attended the College of the North Atlantic (CONA) for business, and graduated from the program in 2010.

By then, Trevor drifted apart from his high school friends because of the difference in lifestyle he had compared to them – everyone got married and had kids. “He wasn’t interested in doing any of that,” said Ashley. “He kind of never got through the next phase… he kind of just got stuck where he was.”

Ashley said Trevor got into a serious relationship after high school, a five year relationship which left him heartbroken. After that, he wasn’t open to the idea of getting into another serious relationship. So, he focused on his job instead

One year before disappearance

Trevor worked in siding for over a decade, then in 2017 (a year before his disappearance), he decided to start his own business. Ashley said it wasn’t long before Trevor realized that running a business wasn’t for him. He enjoyed the labour part of his job, but not so much the invoicing. “Unfortunately that didn’t really pan out for him at the end,” said Ashley.

Trevor was losing money on his business and ended up losing his truck. Then, he lost his business altogether. “Looking back in hindsight, from Christmas on he kind of pulled away from family a bit. He wasn’t around as much,” Ashley said that was one of the biggest differences she noticed in Trevor in the months leading up to his disappearance.

The most significant thing Ashley can remember in the moments leading up to Trevor’s disappearance, is that he sustained an injury to his arm. About a month prior to his disappearance, he had a cut on his arm with significant bleeding.

Trevor told his family that he was in the woods with three people and was accidentally cut with a knife. He said he had to walk a home to bandage it up (a few miles away), and his feet ended up getting blistered. His mom told him he had to go to the hospital the next day. “We actually think it was a warning to trevor, and someone actually physically meant to harm him,” said Ashley.

Ashley doesn’t know who he was in the woods with because Trevor didn’t mention it, but she believes whoever it was, left him there. “That’s why he probably didn’t go to the doctor right away.”

Disappearance

“Trevor wasn’t top on security”
Ashley Hamlyn

Facebook account

Trevor’s mom got a call from Trevor’s roommate Tuesday night, June the 19th at 11:00 p.m. saying that he had not seen Trevor since Saturday. She called Ashley to the phone and after getting some information from the roommate, they started contacting a couple of his close friends. None of them had seen him, so Ashley called police that same night and filed a missing persons report.

Ashley said Trevor had just gotten a new phone but didn’t activate it yet, so they couldn’t actually call or text him. Normally, he would just message people on social media or use other people’s phones to make calls. She said it wasn’t unusual for Trevor not to have a phone on him, in fact, he was always breaking phones. She said the problem was so bad that “Blackberry actually kicked him out and told him he wasn’t allowed to get another blackberry”

After he couldn’t get another blackberry, he got a samsung phone instead. Ashley knew this because she found the brand new box of the samsung phone in his room. But, the Samsung phone was missing.

This is the Paradise home where Trevor Hamlyn was last seen. (Sherry Vivian/CBC)

That night, the police came over to Ashley’s mom’s house and spoke to their family. She got the impression that they thought Trevor would be back within 24 hours, but when he didn’t show up, police issued a press release the next day.

Ashley knew it was difficult for police to get access to a lot of Trevor’s stuff including social media accounts, so they decided to go to Trevor’s place to do a search of their own. At the time, Trevor was renting a room off a friend. When they went into his room, they tried to look for basic things like his wallet. His wallet was not in his room, but it was found upstairs with no money inside.

Then they looked at his computer. One of the first things they noticed was his computer was on, and he hadn’t been logged out of Faceook. “It was not surprising, Trevor wasn’t top on security” but, she said his history browser was completely wiped out.

They told police they had access to his Faceook, and police were on their way. They started looking at his messages to see who he was speaking with last, and that’s when they noticed a message from someone Ashley didn’t know. Somebody that Trevor owed money to.

“As we’re reading this, that’s when the police officer showed up,” she said.

Further information will not be disclosed to protect the privacy of all involved.

MAP OF WHERE TREVOR WAS LAST SEEN ON JUNE 16

TIMELINE of Trevor’s disappearance

June 16, 2018

Trevor was seen at a Sobeys purchasing a bottle Ginger ale, and then at the liquor store connected to Sobeys buying whiskey. He was planning on going to a party that night.
June 19, 2018

Trevor’s roommate called Trevor’s mom to say he hadn’t seen Trevor since Saturday. He was reported missing that night.

Investigation & Search

The iPhone

Ashley took Trevor’s computer home and five days later, police came back to get it. She said police involvement into Trevor’s case was good and they started asking a lot of questions, but most of the information police had was information her family gave them. “We were pretty much the investigators,” she said. She recognized that police had many hurdles including privacy laws which prevented them from getting into Trevor’s personal stuff early in the investigation.

“I found out a lot of things,” said Ashley.

The first ground search was June 23rd. Ashley said family, friends and strangers came to the search. They made a social media post announcing the search, and the story was picked up by the media. Ashley said in total, they had 30 people there and it was the biggest search they had.

“The first search we did, was actually the most interesting search.” Ashley said one group found a white iPhone on the ground and pointed it out. Afterwards, she compared the serial number of the white iPhone to one of Trevor’s old cell phone boxes at home, and it was a match.

She said it was very odd that an old phone of his, which he didn’t use, was found in their search area. “Our theory is that someone planted it. It was placed there. And the reason why we say that is because it was a white iPhone, it was found face up on the grass, we just had rain and there was no water, no mud, no leaves, no nothing,” she said.

“We do believe it was planted there to throw us off the track of where we should be looking. To occupy us,” she said.

She said looking back, she wishes her family would have been provided with the appropriate resources to conduct a thorough search. “We learned after that you should have a signup sheet of everyone doing the search.” She said something they learned is that in missing person cases, it’s common for people to attend a search simply to learn more about the investigation and try to compromise it.

Media

Experience with news outlets

“Some media outlets are really good. They are really considerate of the family. Some of them just want the story, and some just like to spin things”

She said some news outlets put an emphasis on the fact that Trevor was suicidal. “We know that’s not the case. He never had mental health issues, he was never on medications. The police had actually checked with our family doctor three times asking this question,” she said.

“With my father passing, and how hard it’s been on the family, he would never do that. He would never commit suicide. He would never put my mother through that, she’s been through enough.”

Now

Trevor’s case has not been classified as a homicide by police, it is only an active missing persons case. Since his disappearance, his story has not reached national headlines. Ashley hopes that by telling his story, someone with information on Trevor’s whereabouts will do the right thing and come forward with information.

Police ask that anyone with information contact them at 729-8000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Anonymous information can be reported on the NL Crime Stoppers website at www.nlcrimestoppers.com.

You can support Trevor’s family by joining their Facebook Group where they post the most up-to date information about Trevor’s case.