Friday, October 11, 2024

Docu-series surrounding disappearance of barefooted Emma Fillipoff seeks answers

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To mark the 11th year of the disappearance of then 26-year-old Emma Fillipoff, an upcoming docu-series is releasing a third preview of what people can expect when the full show is released. 

The docu-series, Barefoot in the Night: The Search for Emma Fillipoff, seeks to highlight the strange circumstances surrounding Fillipoff’s disappearance and ultimately, to find the young woman and help her get home.

Backstory

According to VicPD, On November 28th, 2012, Fillipoff was acting strangely in front of the Empress Hotel on Government Street.

Police say officers located Fillipoff and spoke with her for a lengthy time. The officers ensured her well-being and let her go.

A few hours later, Emma was reported missing by her family and she has not been seen or heard from since then. 

VicPD say there has been an extensive investigation into Emma’s disappearance which is still ongoing, but investigators have been unsuccessful in figuring out what happened to Fillipoff after those officers spoke with her. 

Emma’s mother, who refuses to give up hope that her daughter is still out there somewhere, is and always has been at the centre of the search. 

“I believe that re-visiting the story of the green t-shirt man will spark renewed interest in my daughter’s case,” said Shelley. 

“I have long felt that this man could be a valuable source of information in Emma’s disappearance. 

“I have always maintained that someone knows what happened to Emma and this initiative may very well be exactly what is needed to solve the mystery,” Fillipoff’s mother added. 

The man in the green shirt

This year, the filmmakers of Barefoot in the Night: The Search for Emma Fillipoff are releasing a third 22-minute preview this week to mark the 11th anniversary of her going missing. 

Over the last couple years, they have done the same, always highlighting a new aspect of that fateful night’s circumstances. 

This latest preview is different from its predecessors because it is highlighting a previously dormant tip regarding a man in a green shirt.

According to the filmmakers, in May of 2014, Emma’s mother, Shelley Fillipoff, traveled from Ontario to British Columbia, to continue the search for her daughter in the downtown east side of Vancouver.

During that time, an agitated man wearing a green T-shirt, with a pronounced limp and sleeved tattoos, walked into a clothing boutique in downtown Vancouver, with a crumpled up missing person poster of Emma in his hand.

He allegedly told workers there, “It’s one of those missing person posters, but she’s not missing. She’s my girlfriend and she fucking hates her family.”

The owners of that boutique called the authorities to report the incident and submit camera footage of the man in the green shirt. 

Despite efforts to locate him, to this day, he has yet to be identified.


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The third preview will be released on Tuesday, November 28th

As of this publication, there is no set release date for the full, six-hour docu-series about Fillipoff’s disappearance. 

Information about Fillipoff and how to help are available online, here

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Curtis Blandy
Curtis Blandy has worked with Victoria Buzz since September 2022. Previously, he was an on air host at The Zone @ 91-3 as well as 100.3 The Q in Victoria, BC. Curtis is a graduate from NAIT’s radio and television broadcasting program in Edmonton, Alta. He thrives in covering stories on local and provincial politics as well as the Victoria music scene. Reach out to him at curtis@victoriabuzz.com.

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