Emma Alexandra Fillipoff, born in 1986 in Perth, Ontario, has been missing since November 28, 2012, after she was last seen in downtown Victoria, British Columbia, in the Inner Harbour area near the Empress Hotel.
She was 26 at the time, described in police missing case materials as shy and quiet, and reported to have been staying at a local shelter for about six months before she disappeared.
Police materials also state it was believed she may have been experiencing the onset of mental health issues around the time she went missing, while also noting she did not use or abuse drugs or alcohol.
Emma moved to Victoria from Ontario in the fall of 2011, arriving without long term housing or stable work arranged, and over time she lived across different situations, including periods that were more transient.
According to timelines compiled by her family and advocates, she held short term jobs and seasonal work, including employment in Victoria’s Inner Harbour food scene during the busy months of 2012, before that job ended on October 31, 2012.
One detail that later mattered to investigators was her red 1993 Mazda MPV van, which appears to have functioned as storage for many of her belongings, rather than a daily vehicle she lived out of.
By late November 2012, her mother, Shelley Fillipoff, was receiving calls from Emma that suggested she wanted to come home, followed by calls where Emma reversed course and asked her not to come.
The family timeline lays out a sequence of repeated calls across November 23 and November 24, with Emma asking for help to return, then changing her mind, then calling again to ask for help with packing and travel.
On November 20, surveillance video at the downtown YMCA captured Emma entering and exiting several times within minutes, behavior later described as consistent with someone checking outside repeatedly as if waiting for, or avoiding, something.
On November 21, a tow truck driver picked her up and drove to Sooke to tow her van back into Victoria, with later accounts saying she talked during the ride about plans to surprise her family by moving back to Ontario.
On November 27, Shelley Fillipoff contacted the Sandy Merriman House shelter and learned Emma had been staying there on and off, and by that night Shelley was again hearing from Emma asking for help to come home.
The day Emma disappeared begins with another reversal. The family timeline records a 4:30 a.m. phone call on November 28 where Emma told her mother not to come that day.
That same morning, Emma went to the Chateau Victoria, where staff had placed a notice on her van, and she asked for more time to move it, which staff granted.
A Canadian police missing case summary lists clothing and items associated with her last known appearance: a beige jacket, camouflage patterned pants, an orange purse, and a light colored canvas bag.
That same police summary states she was barefoot but carrying blue or grey running shoes at the time she was last seen in the Inner Harbour area.
At 8:23 a.m. on November 28, the family timeline says she was captured on surveillance at a 7 Eleven at Douglas and Humboldt, using her debit card to purchase a $200 prepaid credit card.
The same surveillance description notes she lingered near the store doors and appeared to be nervously looking outside, behavior later framed as consistent with fear or avoidance in that moment.
Later that morning, a reported witness sighting placed Emma on Pandora Street, standing close to the curb with multiple bags, refusing or not accepting direct help when approached.
Early afternoon accounts in the family timeline describe a friend or colleague encountering her near services on Pandora Street, with Emma appearing unwell and withdrawing quickly from contact.
At 5:54 p.m., the family timeline states she returned to the same 7 Eleven and used her debit card to buy a prepaid cell phone, again lingering near the doors and peering outside before leaving.
That timeline also states the prepaid phone she purchased was never activated, a detail that later mattered because it eliminated one obvious way to track movement after the last confirmed sighting.
Around 6:00 p.m., Emma returned to Sandy Merriman House. Witnesses there described her becoming very anxious after being told her mother was on the way, then quickly storming out.
The same timeline notes uncertainty about how shelter staff knew her mother was coming, while also stating Shelley had spoken with staff earlier but had not told them she was traveling that day.
At about 6:10 p.m., a taxi driver picked Emma up near the shelter, and she asked to go to the airport before abruptly changing her mind and asking to be dropped off where she had been picked up.
The taxi account as recorded by her family and advocates describes Emma asking to sit in the cab for a while, then becoming anxious when she heard the dispatch radio, and then quickly leaving after paying.
Shortly after, Denis Quay, described as an acquaintance, saw Emma barefoot and appearing disoriented. The family timeline says he asked if someone was following her and she requested he walk with her briefly.
Quay ultimately called police after becoming concerned. A later VICE summary and the family timeline both describe him contacting authorities to report a distressed woman near the Empress Hotel area.
Police located Emma outside the Empress Hotel on Government Street and assessed her for roughly 45 minutes, after which officers decided she was not a threat to herself or others and allowed her to continue on.
The family timeline places police locating her at 7:17 p.m., with officers watching her walk away by about 8:00 p.m., marking the last confirmed sighting described in that record.
Official police public statements have used broader wording, including that officers checked on her around 7:00 p.m. and found her safe at that time, without publishing a minute by minute timeline.
That same night, Shelley arrived at Sandy Merriman House around 11:00 p.m. and learned Emma had not returned to claim her bed. Shelter staff reported her missing to police shortly after midnight.
After Emma was reported missing, police located her van in a nearby hotel parking lot, described in police releases as holding most of her belongings, including her passport, laptop, journals, camera, and recently borrowed library books.
The family website similarly lists items left in the van, including a passport, library card, digital camera, clothing, a pillow, assorted ornaments, a laptop, and library books, reinforcing that she did not leave prepared to travel light.
In the early phase, the investigation produced many tips but few hard anchors beyond the police contact near the Empress and the discovery of the van with valuables left behind.
Search efforts expanded beyond downtown Victoria. The family timeline describes volunteer searches across parks, trails, smaller islands, and later the broader region, while also noting a police dive team searched the Inner Harbour without recovering evidence.
A key lead emerged through the prepaid credit card purchased on November 28. On December 5, 2012, the $200 prepaid card was flagged for use at a Petro Canada station on Sooke Road.
The family timeline says the man who used the card was questioned and polygraphed by police and then cleared, while police statements cited in that same timeline place the card’s discovery near the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre and the Galloping Goose Trail.
Public reporting and later summaries describe that use as a cigarette purchase, which mattered because it confirmed the card had left Emma’s possession and traveled away from downtown, creating a new geographic point.
The family timeline also lists additional reported sightings after November 28, while repeatedly noting they were unconfirmed. One example is a reported November 29 sighting at Lifestyle Market on Douglas Street.
Another unconfirmed report in the family timeline describes an encounter near the Inner Harbour after dark on December 2, where the woman reportedly asked the witness to remember her name and repeat it.
Over time, reported sightings spread widely. The family timeline describes unconfirmed reports from Fernwood Square, Goldstream Park, downtown Vancouver, and other parts of British Columbia, with most tips ultimately attributed to lookalikes.
In May 2014, a new and unusual lead surfaced in Vancouver’s Gastown. Store owners reported an agitated man entered with a crumpled missing person poster for Emma and made statements implying she was not missing.
Security footage captured the man, later described as wearing a green T shirt, walking with a noticeable limp, and having sleeved tattoos. Police and advocates later pushed public appeals to identify him.
Accounts archived by the family site say the man told store owners the missing woman was his girlfriend and had run away to escape her parents, a claim that was treated as a potential investigative lead rather than accepted as fact.
By 2024, police and advocates were still seeking to identify him, and releases referenced updated composite work based on available footage as part of renewed appeals.
In 2018, another lead arrived from a different direction. A man came forward reporting he had picked up a young woman in distress early the morning after Emma vanished, in the Esquimalt area.
The family timeline places that reported pickup around 5:00 a.m. on November 29, describing the woman as shoeless and soaking wet, and says the account led to organized searches in areas including View Royal and sections near the Galloping Goose corridor.
Those searches did not produce physical evidence tied to Emma, and the case remained without confirmed sightings, leaving investigators with a timeline that ends publicly at the police contact near the Empress Hotel.
Over the years, police have periodically renewed appeals and released additional images, including age progression material, while continuing to emphasize that tips continue to arrive but have not produced confirmation of her location.
As of late 2024 and 2025, renewed public appeals again highlighted the Green Shirt Guy lead and asked anyone who knows his identity or has information about Emma’s whereabouts to contact Victoria Police or Crime Stoppers.
A 2025 VicPD release stated the case had been moved to the department’s Historical Case Review Unit, indicating it is treated as an active long term missing person investigation rather than closed or suspended.
The Canadian national missing persons listing for Emma records her as missing from Victoria, with her last seen details tied to the Inner Harbour area on November 28, 2012, and includes her case references and contact numbers for reporting tips.
The unresolved core remains specific. Police spoke with Emma near the Empress Hotel area, found her safe at that moment, and then she disappeared, with no confirmed public sightings afterward and no public disclosure of a verified route beyond that point.
