Lake family seeks death certificate

They’re not giving up hope, but the family of Rhody Lake, who has been missing since 2005, has applied for a death certificate.

Lake was 80 years old when she vanished without a trace on Nov. 27, 2005, while presumably on a walk from her home in Sandy Hook into downtown Sechelt.

The incredibly fit senior was an avid walker and it was not unusual for her to walk into town for church get-togethers and meetings with friends.

She was last seen talking with an elderly man at Porpoise Bay Provincial Park at about 3:30 p.m. that day, but she never made it into town or returned home.

Several searches and pleas for information from the public over the years have failed to produce any leads on what may have happened to Lake.

After someone has been missing for seven years, a family is able to apply for a death certificate, but Lake’s family could not bring themselves to do it — until recently.

Earlier this month Lake’s daughter Jennifer Tipper applied for the certificate and a B.C. Supreme Court judge agreed

“We decided to go forward at this time purely for legal reasons, mainly because we want so much to keep her home in the family, and in order to do that we needed to take legal steps,” Tipper said. “It is not something we had any desire to do otherwise.”

The need to obtain a death certificate doesn’t mean the family has given up hope, Tipper noted.

“Our hope never ends that we will learn something about what happened to her, her whereabouts, anything, any little bit of news is always foremost on our minds,” Tipper said.  “This process does not necessarily bring closure, or change anything as far as our quest goes. It doesn’t in any way end things for us, end our search for her, for what happened to her.”

Lake may have been wearing a blue and yellow vest, brown cords, brown hiking boots and an orange and red or beige tuque when she went missing.

If anyone has information about her disappearance, they are asked to contact the Sunshine Coast RCMP at 604-885-2266.