Brian Douglas McLean was a 37-year-old man who disappeared on September 8, 1978, while working at MacDowell Lake in the District of Kenora, Ontario. McLean and his co-worker, Russell Thomas, were commercial fishermen operating from a camp on MacDowell Lake, near MacDowell Lake First Nation territory. The lake was an exceptionally isolated place to work: official records describe it as approximately 90 air miles north of Red Lake and accessible only by air.
That day, McLean and Thomas set out separately in their own boats to lift fishing nets positioned around the lake. What began as an ordinary working day in the remote northern wilderness would become the last confirmed day anyone saw McLean.
According to Thomas's account to investigators, he traveled first to the western side of MacDowell Lake, where he pulled four nets. He then went to the eastern side and lifted another two. At some point during this work, Thomas realized that McLean was no longer where he expected him to be. With the two men having been working separately on the water, there was apparently no witness who could describe the precise moment McLean disappeared or explain what happened to him. Thomas headed back toward their camp looking for him. During that return, he discovered McLean's boat washed against the shoreline approximately 300 to 400 metres from the camp. McLean himself was nowhere to be found. The condition of the boat added to the uncertainty: its motor was still in forward gear, although the throttle was off, and the paddle that should have been with the boat was missing. Those details left investigators with evidence that something had interrupted McLean's work on the lake, but not with an explanation of what that event had been.
A search followed in the difficult and isolated surroundings of MacDowell Lake. Authorities searched the area and dragged the lake in an effort to locate McLean, but no trace of him was recovered. The remoteness of the setting made the circumstances particularly challenging, with access to the lake described as being by air rather than by ordinary road travel. Despite the discovery of his boat and the extensive attention given to the water, official records do not establish whether McLean entered the lake, reached shore somewhere else, suffered an accident, or disappeared under some other set of circumstances. His case therefore remained unresolved rather than being assigned a confirmed explanation. McLean was approximately 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 170 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes. He also had distinctive physical features: all toes except the big toe were missing from his right foot, and several toes were missing from his left foot.
At the time he vanished, McLean was dressed for the demanding conditions associated with commercial fishing. His recorded clothing included black and red high rubber boots, a dark-colored cap, a green hooded oilskin pullover, green oilskin pants, and coveralls with blue suspenders. Additional clothing descriptions included a yellow wool T-shirt, a black wool shirt, and a red-and-black checkered wool sweater. These identifying details have remained part of the official missing-person record as investigators have continued to seek information about what became of him. The Red Lake detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police remains the investigating agency, with the case recorded under reference RM08093483. Decades after Brian Douglas McLean disappeared, the essential facts remain painfully unchanged: he went onto MacDowell Lake with a co-worker to perform routine commercial fishing work, the men separated to tend their nets, McLean vanished without a witnessed explanation, his empty boat was later found against the shoreline with its motor in gear and paddle missing, and searches of both the surrounding area and the lake failed to bring him home. His disappearance remains an enduring mystery, leaving behind a case defined by a remote lake, an abandoned boat, an intensive search, and the continuing absence of a definitive answer about what happened to him.Last Seen: Sep 8, 1978
