Authorities have narrowed manhunt perimeter to Scott Library
Romina Julian
Staff Writer
- In Scott Library, the search continues for the missing student. – Mark Grant
This December will mark the three-year anniversary of a York student’s disappearance in Scott Library. York security and Toronto Police Services have been following new leads on the case, but have called the search “overwhelming.”
The still-unnamed student (reports on his identity vary) was last seen wearing a red-and-white striped shirt, blue jeans, thick-rimmed glasses, and a red-and-white hat. The student is a white male in his early-to-mid-20s, and was known to use a cane or walking stick as a result of a childhood injury.
The ongoing search had many leads in the past, but all have become dead-ends. “I thought I saw him once, but his hair was the wrong colour,” says Serena Balthazar, a fourth-year psychology student who spends most of her days searching for ways out of Scott Library.
The biggest challenge facing officers and security guards conducting the search is the threat of visual overload.
“I can’t look [at Scott Library] for more than maybe five [to] 10 minutes at a time,” said a security guard who wished to remain anonymous. “The colours aren’t complementary, the original architecture clashes with the post-modern renovations they made last year, and it’s always full of aimless, wandering students.
“None of us can search here without getting a headache, or worse. One of my co-workers is starting to hallucinate; she swears that she saw a wizard walking around in here. Beard, robe, and everything.”
With the case going on for so long, sightings have become a favourite pastime among York students. Each semester, there are multiple sightings of the student roaming through the library, but he never seems to be where witnesses remembered him being.
An oversight committee has warned the York administration that if drastic changes to the library are not made soon, more students will go missing in the “cruel, featureless void” of the Scott Library stacks.
A renovation crew was sent into the stacks shortly after the initial disappearance. If you listen closely, you can still hear them—calling for help.
In the meantime, authorities are pressing the student populace for more details on the missing student; even a first name would do.
“He was absolutely named Albert, or Wally,” says international student Rowan Hunt, from the UK. “A good chap, that one.”
However, second-year Glendon French studies major Francoise Gillespie disagrees: “His name was Charlie, and he brought his little dog everywhere he went.”
DISCLAIMER: This issue contains works of satire. All names used in this story are invented, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names or events is accidental and coincidental.
