In the small community of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, a respected elder named William Peter Teya went missing, leaving his family and community with unanswered questions. At 73 years of age, Mr. Teya was last seen in the hamlet of about 900 people on September 21, 2006. A traditional hunter and trapper, he was the grandson of Chief Julius Salu, a significant figure in the history of the Fort McPherson Tetlit Gwich'in. Concerns for his well-being were heightened because he had previously suffered a stroke. When he was last seen, he was wearing brown moccasins with rubber soles, a dark baseball cap, dark pants, and a black jacket bearing the inscription 'E. Gruben Transport' on the chest. Three days after he was last seen, with no sign of his return, he was officially reported missing on September 24, 2006.
The disappearance of William Teya prompted an immediate and extensive search effort. The community of Fort McPherson, along with people from the surrounding Gwich'in communities of Aklavik, Inuvik, Old Crow, and Tsiigehtchic, rallied together. More than 30 volunteers scoured the land in and around the community, focusing on areas he was known to frequent, including his cabin located on the Peel River. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police assisted in the search, deploying resources that included a helicopter with spotters and a police dog brought in from Yellowknife. Despite these exhaustive efforts by air and on the ground, no trace of the missing elder was found, and the official RCMP search was eventually called off, though community members continued to look. His wife of 50 years, Mary Teya, expressed the deep pain of not knowing what had happened to her husband but remained hopeful.
As time passed without any sign of Mr. Teya, the family made the difficult decision to seek some form of closure. In June of 2007, more than nine months after he vanished, his family held a memorial service for him. The case, however, remained open. A significant development came in September 2010, four years after his disappearance, when the N.W.T. RCMP announced that they had received new tips. This new information was deemed credible enough to escalate the investigation, and the case was reclassified as a major crime, to be handled by the major crime investigation unit in Yellowknife. Despite this renewed focus, William Peter Teya has not been located. The case remains an unresolved disappearance, a story of a respected Indigenous elder who vanished from his community, leaving behind a legacy of tradition and a lingering mystery that continues to trouble his family and all who knew him.
Last Seen: Sep 21, 2006
