A filmmaker from Massachusetts is hoping to shed some light on a Maritime mystery involving a university student who disappeared 21 years ago.
Allan Kenley Matheson was two weeks into his first semester at Acadia University when he disappeared without a trace in September 1992.
Sarah MacDonald has never stopped searching for answers about what happened to her son, but she is hoping that will change with plans for a documentary called “Missing Kenley.”
“We don’t really know one single thing,” she says. “There have always been questions in my mind about what happened, different scenarios. I haven’t been satisfied completely.”
Matheson was 20 years old and lived on campus in Crowell Tower when he disappeared. His sister also attended Acadia University at the time and was one of the last people to see him, on a Sunday afternoon.
It was reported that one of Matheson’s friends saw him walking along Main Street the following day. That was the last time anyone saw or heard from him and his bank account has never been touched.
“What are the possible reasons why someone…would be here one day and not the next?” asks James Sanford of Acadia Student Services.
Sanford worked in athletics at the time. He didn’t know Matheson but remembers the feeling on campus.
“Whether it happened 21 years ago, or whether it happens today, this is a small community,” says Sanford. “People pay attention to each other. They look out for each other.”
No one seems to have any idea what may have happened to the young man from Cape Breton. His disappearance is being treated as a missing persons case and was added to Nova Scotia’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes program last year.
“It’s very, very hard for police to really know or determine what may have happened,” says RCMP Sgt. Al LeBlanc. “We do not have a crime scene. We have no evidence, no physical evidence to support that maybe foul play was involved. We do not know that.”
While police say there is no evidence, there have been plenty of theories presented over the years.
“You know, there may have been some tragic accident that took place during those first couple of weeks at Acadia,” says documentary filmmaker Ron Lamothe. “There’s been some speculation he may have committed suicide, although no body has ever been found.”
The mystery has always intrigued Lamothe, who is trying to raise money through a crowdfunding campaign to bring the documentary to life.
“It is my hope that in the making of this film perhaps some new evidence, new answers will come to light,” he says.
That hope is shared by Matheson’s mother.
“And of course, knowing that in the end we might still not have an answer,” she says.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster
