The search continues for a man with schizophrenia who walked away from a Saanich mental-health facility in early November and has not been seen since.
Sean Hart left Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health Facility Nov. 6 and has been off his medication for almost 30 days. His mother, Penny Hart, who flew in from Calgary to help look for him, has plastered a missing person posters with photographs of Sean throughout Greater Victoria. She has also created a Facebook page — Please Help Find Sean Martin Hart — and is appealing to the public to check for updates.
A friend is also looking for Sean in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, she said Friday.
Saanich police investigators suspect that Sean may be wearing a pair of relatively new black hiking boots. They are described as Under Armour men’s size 10 Valsetz hiking boots.
Hart is known to walk barefoot for miles, so he may have taken them off and discarded them somewhere along his travels, said Saanich police Const. Markus Anastasiades.
“If you see these boots, do not touch them and call police immediately,” he said.
Hart thanked the people of Victoria and Saanich police for their help, and is hopeful her son will be found soon.
“Sean will be manic and functioning at a high level. However, he also gets paranoid and reclusive. He has been struggling with mental illness for a long, long time so he is very resourceful. But he is a survivor,” she said.
ldickson@timescolonist.com
