A A

The video image is blurry — just an indistinct black line really, caught on the security camera at the front gate of Garrison Petawawa around 5 a.m. on Feb. 13.

The figure seems to walk along Festubert Boulevard in the heavy snow that fell that night, then lingers for a while beside the Royal Canadian Legion before disappearing from view.

Was it Trinity Poil?

“It’s just a black line moving with no distinguishing features, so it could be anyone,” said Trinity’s mother, Tammy Poil, who was shown the video by police after Trinity’s disappearance more than six weeks ago.

Many people work odd shifts at Garrison Petawawa so someone walking near the gate at that hour would not be unusual. Several cars can be seen driving past and investigators and the Poil family still hope that someone there that morning might have seen something. Security cameras at other nearby businesses revealed nothing.

News of the missing Grade 11 student first hit the media about a week after Trinity’s disappearance, but the story spread nationally last week when Tammy and Trinity’s stepfather, Patrick Reddick, spoke publicly for the first time. The story has been read more than 50,000 times on ottawacitizen.com and viewed 100,000 times on the Citizen’s Facebook page where the post has been shared by more than 2,500 people. A Citizen video posted to YouTube has garnered 50,000 views.

The missing teen poster of Trinity. Tammy Poil and Patrick Reddick's daughter Trinity has been missing from their family home at Garrison Petawawa since February 13. JULIE OLIVER / POSTMEDIA

The story has also been read more than 4,000 times on the Ottawa Sun.

The attention yielded one potential sighting, but police checked and discounted it, Poil said. The publicity also doubled contributions to the family’s GoFundMe campaign, which they hope will help pay for a private forensic audit of Trinity’s cellphone and laptop. Trinity, who turned 17 last week, and is on the autism spectrum, was a gifted computer coder and spent much of her life gaming on online networks like Twitch and Discord.

Trusted friends have been monitoring the sites in case Trinity’s accounts become active, but the family has not revealed Trinity’s user names.

“We don’t want them to be hacked and have someone go online and posing as her, because unfortunately there are people who will do that,” Tammy said. “Our goal is to find her and if she comes home, to resume life as normally as possible.”

Military police visited the home on the weekend, collecting DNA samples from Trinity’s comb, toothbrush and clothing. The DNA will be uploaded to the RCMP missing persons database if Trinity is still missing after six months.

Military police have searched “100 per cent” of the base, said Lt. Anne Côté, a public affairs officer with Garrison Petawawa, but have little new information to release about their investigation. But they have appealed for witnesses on the base’s Facebook page.

“If you were out in the areas of Petawawa Blvd and the North Town Site in the early morning hours of 13 February 2019, please contact police: you may have seen or heard something that could lead to her location. Every bit counts, no matter how small it may seem on its own. Please continue to check your properties and areas of daily activities.”

Meanwhile, Reddick’s army comrades have chipped in as well, raising money for the search and offering support to the family. Air crew on Petawawa’s helicopter squadrons have also promised to keep a lookout from the sky.

“It’s an unofficial search, but they said they’d be watching,” Poil said. “It’s reassuring every time I hear a helicopter overhead.”

Anyone who has any information about Trinity Poil’s whereabouts is asked to call military police at 613-687-5511 ext. 5444 or missingkids.ca at 1-866-Kid-Tips. Contributions can be made at gofundme.com/f/missing-trinity-poil

bcrawford@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/getBAC

Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019