Thompson, Man., family raises $50K reward for missing teen's return
The family of Nicholas Brophy, 19, who went missing Sept. 8 in Thompson, Man., is hoping a $50,000 reward will help bring him home.
Brophy was last seen leaving a friend's house at around 11 p.m., but he never made it back to his parents' house that night nor to school the next day. Nearly eight months later, his family still doesn't know what happened to him.
"It's a nightmare that doesn't end. It's day in, day out torture," said his sister Ashleigh Brophy, in Thompson.
"He's our joy."
She says her brother, a Grade 12 student at R. D. Parker Collegiate, only had four more credits to go in order to graduate. He was an avid soccer player and loved dirt bike racing.
"We babied him. He's our baby, and this is not something he would do on his own," she said, adding he didn't take any of his belongings from home and made no mention of wanting to disappear.
The family collected money through fundraising on a gofundme campaign, holding a bingo night, and from family savings to create the reward.
"He loved being around his family. He was a jokester. He was a very happy, happy person. He always had a smile on his face. He always wanted to help everyone," his sister said, getting emotional.
She said he was a doting uncle to her daughters, who "adore" him, and he would take her eldest to the park or drop in to play with them.
He was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, but had no mental disorders otherwise, his sister said. He never spoke of suicide and hadn't run away before.
"He didn't have enemies. He was nice to everybody, everybody loved him. It honestly doesn't make sense for this to happen to him," she said, adding her brother also wasn't into drugs or crime.
Ashleigh led community searches for about two weeks, with 50 to 100 people coming out each time, covering the entire city. She said the RCMP searched with dogs, the Rangers searched, and people continued looking well into October.
"Everyone was looking for him. There was boats, there was quads, everyone was on foot. Everyone in the town was looking for him, and we never found anything — not a trace."
It's frustrating and devastating to her family that there are no new leads, she said.
"We're still at square one with the RCMP with what we know, what happened, what they think may have happened. From the day that he went missing until now, we have absolutely no answers," she said.
"It's horrible."
RCMP confirmed the investigation into Brophy's disappearance is active, but aren't releasing any other details at this time.
"They're looking for like a cellphone or something. He's a brother, he's a son, he's an uncle, he's a grandson, he's a nephew, he's a friend. And we have no answers. He's the light of our family. Without him, we're not whole," said Brophy.
"He's everything to us, and the fact that we have no answers is just heartbreaking."
She hopes people will look at his photo and keep their eyes open.
"Just take a picture and send it in, and we will confirm whether or not it's him," she said.
"It'll be eight months on May 8, and it's just the worst eight months that we've ever had."
The reward will be handed out to the person who finds him whether the news is good or bad, she said.
"You can't enjoy anything, you can't be happy about anything.… We want to know what happened, and we want closure, and we want to bring him home."
