Family marks one year since Cape Breton man’s remains were found

Ken MacDonald is pictured outside his workplace in Sydney, N.S., on May 30, 2026. (Ryan MacDonald/CTV Atlantic)

Fiddle music was the only sound accompanying approximately 50 people who gathered along the Morley Road in Sydney Forks, N.S., to remember Justin MacDonald, one year to the day since his father Ken discovered his remains there.

“It’s hard to believe it’s a year since we found Justin,” Ken told CTV Atlantic in an interview Saturday.

Ken’s discovery on May 26, 2025 ended 322 days of searching for he and his wife Peggy.

Family and friends gathered at the place where he found his son’s remains to support the grieving family a year later. Ken said he organized the memorial in part to show appreciation for the help during the long effort to find his son.

“Because it took a whole community, it took a lot of people,” Ken said. “So it being a year, I just had to do something. Just to say thanks.”

MacDonald, who was 34 years old, was last seen on surveillance video in July 2024, leaving a gas station in North Sydney, N.S., approximately twenty kilometers away from where his remains were found.

Ken said he visits the site at Morley Road nearly every day but returning exactly a year after finding his son was emotional.

“It’s hard,” Ken said. “You wish you could change it but, yeah, it’s hard.”

Three men been charged in connection with MacDonald’s death; Aaron Curtis Mickey, Ryan Joseph Pike and Mitchell George McPhee. Their cases have been making their way through the court system since they were arrested within weeks of one another in December 2024.

“I never thought the court systems would be this difficult,” Ken said. “I know there is a process to it.”

The MacDonalds had another bittersweet milestone to mark on Sunday, which would have been Justin’s 36^th birthday.

“And he will be 37 when we go to court”, MacDonald said. “The trial [for two of the three accused] will be on his birthday in 2027.”

Near the end of the memorial service, Ken said a bald eagle flew overhead. He said the last time he saw an eagle at that location was the day he found his son’s remains.

“It was like it was letting us know that like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get justice.’”

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