Police are combing a Selkirk Avenue property after a warrant was issued relating to Cody Harper, who has been missing since 2021.
Harper was 28 when he was last seen in Elmwood on Oct. 13, 2021, and was reported missing a month later.
While few details were provided about the warrant or what drew investigators to the home located on Selkirk between Main and King streets, Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy called the search a “significant” step in the search for Harper.
POLICE HANDOUT PHOTO
On December 13, 2021, the Winnipeg Police Service’s Missing Person Unit first issued a missing person bulletin for Cody Harper. On July 24, police announced they were executing a search warrant as they continue to investigate Harper’s disappearance.
“We do want to reassure the public that there is no concern here for their own personal safety; this is an ongoing investigation, this is a search warrant that has been provided to the missing persons unit,” he told reporters near the site Wednesday afternoon.
Police caution tape marked the property, a boarded-up home and adjacent, overgrown yard.
Wood slats and a discarded mattress were among the visible items strewn about the property as investigators worked.
The search warrant was the first executed in Harper’s disappearance, Chancy said, adding neighbours could expect to see officers in the area for the “foreseeable future.”
“We want to reassure the public that this is a long-term investigation,” he said.
Chancy said the RCMP, which has “technology that is not available to (the WPS)” is involved, but he didn’t elaborate.
Harper’s family has been notified.
Police first put out a public call for any information on Harper’s disappearance in December 2021.
He was described as six feet tall, weighing 220 pounds, with a medium build and long black hair. He was wearing black pants, black-and-white runners, a black zip-up sweater and a black T-shirt when he was last seen.
Anyone with information is being asked to contact the WPS Missing Persons Unit at 204-986-6250.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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