A decade later, family of Dylan Koshman wants answers from Edmonton police
Each Thanksgiving weekend for the past ten years, Dylan Koshman's family has held a vigil to remember the 21-year-old who went missing in 2008 in Edmonton.
Koshman's mother, Melanie Alix, hopes this year will be different.
The family will meet with Edmonton homicide detectives that have taken over the case. Alix hopes to get an update on their progress.
"I'm going to ask them some questions about what happened, why it changed all of a sudden to homicide — if they do have any new information," she said. "At one point we thought they did and now they're saying there isn't. I would like to get that clarified."
Alix travelled to Edmonton from Moose Jaw, Sask. to take part in the vigil Sunday, held where Koshman was last seen in the area of Calgary trail and 34th Avenue.
"We will never give up hope — hope in finding Dylan and the answers we desperately need."
Police decided to treat the case as a homicide in late 2016, eight years after Koshman went missing.
Alix also wants to hear how a new DNA databank may help identify her son's remains if his remains are found in another province.
"I believe that some tasks weren't done in the beginning and this case should have been passed to homicide earlier."
Koshman had moved to Edmonton from Moose Jaw, Sask., in 2008 to work as a pipefitter.
He was last seen on Thanksgiving weekend that October.
He was living with two older cousins and his brothers Nick Koshman and Colin Demasson. They were renting a house on the city's south side. On Oct. 11, Colin and Dylan got into a fight.
Koshman left the house and the family never saw him again.
"Dylan didn't just wander off and freeze to death, even though he was consuming alcohol. We knew there was something more to it."
Alix said she feels something happened to her son that night and the family can't rest until they know what happened.
"It's very hard to live life knowing that someone you love is gone and there's no closure."
Koshman's older sister, Tara Koshman who lives in Red Deer, said the past ten years have felt like a roller-coaster with the family being largely left in the dark.
"We were hoping we would see some answers but unfortunately nothing has ever come about."
She said the police gave the impression there was a tip or more information to come.
"I don't know what they have been doing," Koshman said. "I feel let down."
She said the family had to hear from the Fifth Estate's investigative report that the case was being transferred to the homicide section.
She's hoping to get some answers at a meeting with Edmonton homicide detectives Tuesday.
"I want to know that they're working, that they're doing something for our family, that his file isn't sitting on a desk somewhere."
Koshman described her brother as a fun, animated, gentle man.
"He's a very important person to us," she said. "When he vanished, it was like all of our worlds crumbled."
