In the early hours of May 5, 1991, in the town of Stephenville, Newfoundland & Labrador, a 45-year-old physician named Jitinkumar Devchand Karamshi Shah vanished. Dr. Shah, who worked at the Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital, had recently moved to the community in November 1990. Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, he had previously lived and worked in Sheffield, England, where his family remained at the time of his disappearance.
He was a man of East Indian ethnicity, standing at five feet five inches tall and weighing around 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. On the night he was last seen, he was wearing a beige cotton jacket, brown pants, a brown cotton shirt, and brown leather shoes. His sudden disappearance would leave a lasting void and a mystery that has endured for decades.
The evening of May 4, 1991, began with Dr. Shah joining friends at a local establishment called the 104 Club after leaving the hospital. After a night out, he drove a friend to their residence. Instead of driving to his own home, he continued on foot. The last confirmed sighting of Jitinkumar Shah was at approximately 2:45 a.m. as he was walking home along Carolina Avenue. He was never seen or heard from again. In the days that followed his disappearance, authorities launched a search effort. One theory entertained by police was that he may have accidentally lost his footing and fallen into a nearby brook during his walk home. This possibility led to the brook being dragged and a thorough ground search of the surrounding area being conducted, but these efforts yielded no clues as to his whereabouts.
The investigation into Dr. Shah's disappearance has remained open over the years, a quiet and lingering question in the community he had called home for only six months. While investigators have stated that they do not suspect foul play, they have also been unable to definitively rule it out, leaving all possibilities open. The lack of evidence, witnesses to what happened after 2:45 a.m., or any further trace of the physician has left his family and the community without answers. The case is an overview of a man new to the area, a respected doctor, who vanished without a trace after a routine evening with friends, creating a perplexing and unresolved missing person file.Last Seen: May 5, 1991
