NEW WATERFORD, N.S. -- It's been more than 30 years since Maureen Miller last saw her son alive.
The three decades since Clayton Miller's death have been filled with questions and investigations surrounding how he died.
"Right now what we're planning on doing now is our lawyer's office is preparing to go to court," Miller said.
The Serious Incident Response Team – Nova Scotia's police watchdog -- concluded its investigation in October of 2017, finding that Clayton Miller died from alcohol consumption and hypothermia.
"If there was an animal or a person laying in the brook, you'd see them laying in the brook 25 feet before you got to them because the brook was not that deep," said Bryan MacDonald, a search and rescue co-ordinator.
The Millers' lawyer, Ray Wagner, interviewed MacDonald in 2017. MacDonald told him he was a member of Cape Breton Search and Rescue and searched for Clayton Miller shortly after he was reported missing, but SIRT says there's no record a search ever took place.
"To dismiss his evidence, very strong and powerful evidence, that professional search and rescue people attended the area and could not find the body of a person who was clothed in a red jacket is unbelievable," Wagner said.
Wagner and the Miller family believe there was foul play in Clayton's death and are calling for an independent investigation.
"We're not just a bunch of kooks that are trying to chase ghosts and smoke," Wagner said.
CTV Atlantic reached out to SIRT on Tueday, the agency did not provide a comment. In a letter from September 2020, the head of SIRT declined to meet with the Miller family and told Wagner he did not see a need to discuss the matter further.
"I'll fight until my last breath," Maureen Miller said. "He deserves justice."
Wagner says he confident the truth will come out, and he says that could happen in just a few months.
