Disappearance of Noreen Greenley

On the night of 14 September 1963, 13-year-old Canadian girl Noreen Anne Greenley (born 16 May 1950) disappeared from Bowmanville, Ontario. She was last seen after leaving a friend's home to catch a bus. A witness reported seeing a young girl enter a small blue car near the bus stop, leading investigators for many years to suspect that Greenley had been abducted.

The case has been re-examined several times without resolution. In 2018, police excavated land near Bowmanville after receiving information that Greenley might have been buried in a car, but found no evidence. In 2023, the Durham Regional Police Service disclosed a separate, unverified theory that Greenley had left voluntarily while pregnant and may subsequently have lived in Upstate New York. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

Background

Greenley was born on 16 May 1950. At the time of her disappearance she had brown hair and green eyes, stood tall, and weighed approximately . She lived with her family in the Bowmanville area.

Disappearance

On Saturday, 14 September 1963, Greenley went bowling in Bowmanville with friends and later ate dinner with them. She then went to a friend's house near the intersection of Waverly Road and the former Highway 2. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Greenley left the house intending to take a westbound bus home from the stop across the street. The bus driver later said that no one was waiting there when the bus arrived.

A witness reported seeing a young girl at the bus stop between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m. The witness said that, after briefly leaving the area, he saw the girl enter a small blue car that then travelled west, in the direction of Greenley's home. The vehicle was described as a well-maintained or recently painted 1957–1959 Ford Prefect. Greenley did not return home and has not been reliably seen since.

The Bowmanville Police Department conducted several searches, but neither Greenley nor evidence establishing what happened to her was found. Contemporary searches involved police, local residents and workers from area businesses.

Investigation

The Durham Regional Police Service took over the investigation in 1995. Its homicide unit revisited the case in 2005, but the renewed investigation did not establish Greenley's whereabouts. Police released an age progression image in 2015 in an effort to generate new tips.

2018 excavation

Police later investigated information that a man involved in road construction in 1963 had buried a car near Regional Road 57 and Concession Road 8, close to Enniskillen. The claim became associated with a reported deathbed confession and a theory that Greenley had been killed and placed inside the vehicle. Police subsequently said that the man's son did not believe his father had killed Greenley, although he did believe that his father had buried a car.

On 18 October 2018, investigators excavated the site. They dug two trenches, approximately and long, to a depth of about , and used metal-detection equipment capable of examining farther below the excavated surface. No car, human remains or other evidence connected to Greenley was found.

Possible voluntary departure

On the 60th anniversary of the disappearance in September 2023, Durham police publicly disclosed another line of inquiry. Investigators said that in 1968 Greenley's father, Harvey Greenley, had told police that his daughter had not disappeared but had left home. He died shortly afterwards, limiting investigators' ability to question him further.

Police said that recently recovered notebooks belonging to a former Bowmanville police constable contained a report about two girls staying in Oshawa, one of whom was pregnant and afraid to return home. The girls were not located at the time. Investigators said the entry offered some corroboration for the information attributed to Greenley's father.

According to the theory outlined by police, Greenley may have remained in Oshawa for about two weeks and then in Whitby for approximately three weeks. She and another girl may later have crossed Lake Ontario aboard a cabin cruiser to Rochester, New York, after which Greenley may have lived near Syracuse and given birth to a son. Police stressed that the account had not been proven and appealed for people who recognized details of the story to come forward. Greenley's family said that it supported investigators examining every possible avenue.

See also

• List of people who disappeared mysteriously (1910–1970)

External links

• Noreen Anne Greenley at MissingKids.ca