Mark K. Cornett was a 28-year-old man who disappeared on June 2, 1987, while fishing on Missinaibi Lake in the Missinabi area of northern Ontario. Available missing-person records describe his disappearance as the result of a boating accident that occurred approximately one kilometre north of Fairy Point, a prominent location on the lake. Cornett had been out on the water when the accident occurred, and he was not subsequently located.
Investigators came to believe that he had entered the lake and drowned, but his disappearance remained documented as a missing-person case. At the time he vanished, Cornett was described as approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing about 168 pounds. He was reportedly wearing blue jeans and a blue-and-white checkered cotton shirt when he was last seen.
The setting of Cornett's disappearance was a large and remote wilderness lake where boating and fishing are central activities. Missinaibi Lake is part of what is now Missinaibi Provincial Park, a vast waterway park in northern Ontario encompassing large lakes, lengthy stretches of river and extensive backcountry. Ontario Parks describes Missinaibi Lake as nearly 40 kilometres long and particularly well known for fishing, including lake trout, walleye and northern pike. Fairy Point, the landmark associated with Cornett's disappearance, is a distinctive location on the lake containing more than 100 Indigenous pictographs along a prominent cliff face. The lake and its surrounding wilderness can be reached through relatively remote access routes, and much of the area is oriented toward boating, canoeing and backcountry travel rather than dense settlement. This geography provides important context for the difficulty of a water search in such an environment, especially when someone disappears away from developed shoreline areas.
What is known publicly about the accident itself is limited. Online case information does not provide a detailed reconstruction explaining what caused the boat accident, whether Cornett was alone, whether the vessel was recovered, what weather or water conditions existed at the time, or precisely how extensive the original search became. The consistent account is that he was fishing when the boating accident occurred roughly one kilometre north of Fairy Point and that authorities have presumed he drowned. Because Cornett was never recovered, however, the case continued to be recorded within Canadian missing-person systems rather than ending with the physical recovery of his remains. His disappearance is listed in connection with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's missing-person records, while the Ontario Provincial Police is identified as the investigative agency to contact regarding information about the case. The publicly reproduced case information associates the matter with RCMP case number 2006024399 and OPP reference number RM11076023.
More than three decades after Cornett disappeared, the essential circumstances remain strikingly simple and deeply sad: a 28-year-old man went onto Missinaibi Lake to fish on June 2, 1987, became involved in a boating accident near Fairy Point, and never returned. Authorities have long considered drowning the most likely explanation, yet the absence of a recovery left his family without the certainty that normally comes when a fatal accident can be conclusively documented. The location itself underscores the challenges surrounding the case. Missinaibi is an expansive wilderness lake with numerous bays, islands, remote shoreline and deep stretches of water, and modern Ontario Parks information continues to describe boating, paddling and fishing as defining features of the area. Cornett's case therefore remains the story of an outdoor trip that ended abruptly in unexplained loss: Mark K. Cornett disappeared while fishing near Fairy Point, investigators concluded that he most likely drowned following a boating accident, and despite that conclusion he has remained listed as a missing person because he was never recovered.Last Seen: Jun 2, 1987
