Where is Lindsey Nicholls? Mounties issue plea in cold-case disappearance of Vancouver Island teen

Mounties in the Comox Valley are pleading for information as the community prepares to mark 30 years since a 14-year-old girl disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Lindsey Nicholls vanished on the morning of Aug. 2, 1993. She was last seen in blue jeans, a khaki shirt and white canvas shoes, walking down Royston Road, south of Courtenay, to visit friends during the B.C. Day long weekend.

Despite decades of work by investigators, her whereabouts and the circumstances surrounding the cold case remain unknown.

"Someone out there knows something and I'm hoping this exposure will convince them to come forward with any piece of information that could help us," the missing girl's mother, Judy Peterson, said in a statement through the Comox Valley RCMP on Thursday.

"We all love her so much and the not knowing is so difficult," she added.

Peterson is launching a campaign to generate tips ahead of the 30th anniversary of her daughter's disappearance. The effort will include billboards in prominent areas around the Comox Valley asking anyone with information about the case to come forward to investigators.

"Lindsey’s disappearance remains an active and ongoing investigation. This case has never been forgotten," says Cpl. Matt Holst of the Comox Valley RCMP major crimes unit.

"Tips continue to come in, and each one is diligently followed up. The passage of three decades has not diminished our determination to find answers and provide closure to Lindsey's family and friends who have endured an agonizing wait for resolution."

More than a dozen forensic officers searched a rural property in the Comox Valley in August 2016, acting on a tip from the public about the Nicholls case.

Mounties did not share the results of the two-day search with the public.

In the time since her daughter's disappearance, Peterson has advocated tirelessly to expand Canada's national DNA databank to include DNA from missing persons across the country.

Her efforts led to the passing of "Lindsey's Law", which the Comox Valley RCMP describe as a "ground-breaking piece of legislation that has played a pivotal role in identifying unidentified remains and resolving numerous missing persons cases" in Canada.

Anyone with information about Nicholls' disappearance is asked to call the Comox Valley RCMP at 250- 338-1321.