Ashley Simpson: Rose meets John

My meeting with my cousin, John Simpson, got off to a rough start.

I knocked at the door, then opened it, and the biggest German Shepherd I'd ever seen bounded out and jumped on top of our puppy Viggo, pinning him down amidst barking and gnashing teeth. Pearl, the Mini Aussie, tried to come to the rescue, in a valiant effort to save her playmate.

In the middle of it all, Scott and John managed to get Viggo out from under Gypsy, and he ran for cover. 

It was a short, heart-stopping moment but it didn't take long for John to wrangle Gypsy and get her in her cage. I think she spotted a handsome young devil and was hoping to have her way with him.

All good.

I looked at the face of my cousin, a mug I had seen a hundred times in videos, in newspapers and on the Internet. It was a face that I had never seen in person. Up until three years ago, I didn't even know he existed.

We met on Facebook after his daughter Ashley Simpson disappeared without a trace from her home in Salmon Arm. His sister had posted an urgent message that her niece was missing. I joined in a Facebook group which included John and Julie's many other siblings who became part of our family through adoption. There were nine of them in all. A few were adopted by my uncles though they were never told that they were related; they led their lives for decades never knowing their cousins were actually their brothers and sisters.

John was adopted by my Uncle Murray, and his wife, Etta (who was actually John's grandmother). The family moved out West when I was a young kid, so I didn't know John until we met on Facebook.

Since then, we have become more than relatives; we've bonded over our joint concern for Ashley. 

For the first year after her disappearance, I wrote a blog about Ashley and John's quest to find her. We then worked together with Shane Michaels to start a Facebook group called Wings of Mercy, which is dedicated to finding the missing and murdered through the use of drones operated by volunteers. Wings now has more than 1,000 members across North America. These selfless volunteers go out after search and rescue groups go home, to find people lost in the bush and in other rough terrain.

The brilliant Shane has developed special software that will help rescuers to pinpoint and better identify areas such as shallow graves and other places that would never be found otherwise.

John started the ball rolling, buying the first drones to help look for Ashley two years ago. It is his hope that searchers can do for others what couldn't be done for Ashley: look for fresh trails and evidence and find the disappeared before the task turns from rescue to retrieval.

After John put Gypsy into her cage, we sat for an hour and talked about our journey. We were surrounded by images of Ashley: her baby pictures, artwork made in her honour. We talked about the upcoming golf tournament he runs in Ashley's name to raise money for the drone program.

And he told me he was leaving shortly to travel 3,000 km to visit Shane up in Northern Saskatchewan.

He wanted to meet him for breakfast, and shake his hand, he said.

John took that journey just last week. They shared a breakfast, he shook Shane's hand, and he turned around and returned home, blowing Shane's mind completely.

But that's John.

He'll drop everything, work, life, to thank a man half a country away.

John is a man on a mission.

Nothing will stop him.

Which is just a word to the killer of this lovely woman, full of life.

He messed with the wrong father.

John Simpson will never stop looking for Ashley.

And neither will we.