'I need to find my son': N.S. mother desperate for answers a year after son's disappearance

A Nova Scotia mother is still desperately searching for answers a year after her son disappeared without a trace.

“It’s like he completely vanished. No trace whatsoever,” says Theresa Gray. “No social media, no using of his bank account, no answering texts or phone calls.”

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of Devon Marsman’s disappearance.

Halifax Regional Police say the teen was last seen in the Spryfield areaon Feb. 24, 2022 and reported missing to police on March 4, 2022. He was 16 at the time.

At that time, Halifax police said they had no reason to suspect foul play in Marsman’s disappearance.

However, police said in October that they believed his disappearance was suspicious.

“It should have been criminal, deemed suspicious right away,” says Gray.

Gray says her daughter saw the teen at home on Feb. 24, 2022, but that police have told her they have proof he ordered a taxi to his cousin’s house in Spryfield the next day.

Police would only tell CTV News that Marsman was last seen in Spryfield.

“If someone’s not holding him, I think harm has been done to him, and I need to find my son,” says Gray.

She says police did collect some evidence while searching a residence in the Spryfield area.

“I was told not long ago, they can’t specifically tell me what came back, but whatever came back, now it’s called hold evidence.”

Halifax Regional Police Const. John MacLeod tells CTV News he can’t release specifics about the case because it’s an ongoing investigation.

“But we can tell you we have been and continue to look into investigative avenues,” says MacLeod. “We are following up on tips that have been given to police.”

Gray says police and search-and-rescue scoured a pond in Spryfield last fall, though police would not confirm this to CTV News.

“I’m not sure what that search entailed or why they specifically went to Roach’s pond,” says Gray.

Devon Marsman, 16, was reported missing to Halifax Regional Police on March 4, 2022. (Halifax Regional Police)

Regardless, she says she has been consumed by the search for her son, often spending her days off work conducting her own search of the pond and the surrounding area.

Family and friends have held their own searches and vigils and plastered posters across the country over the last year.

Gray says she has been all over the Maritimes and even talked to psychics about her son’s disappearance.

Meanwhile, police are asking people who have information about the case to come forward.

“There are people still that haven’t provided information to us and that information could be very important,” says MacLeod.

The Nova Scotia Department of Justice is offering up to $150,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case, under its Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program.

Marsman, now 17, is described by police as African Nova Scotian, about five feet tall and 100 pounds, with blue-green eyes and short dark hair.

He was wearing a hoodie and jeans the last time he was seen.

Anyone with information about his disappearance is asked to call the Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program at 1-888-710-9090, Halifax Regional Police at 902-490-5020, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.