Kimberly McAndrew case unsolved after 25 years

Next week marks 25 years since Kimberly McAndrew worked her last shift at the Canadian Tire on Quinpool Road,  then vanished.

It was Aug. 12, 1989. McAndrew was a cute and cheerful cashier with braces. The 19-year-old Dalhousie University student left work a few minutes early, just before 4:30 p.m.

But she never made it home.

Two decades later, co-worker Mary Watson still finds it painful.

“People don’t just disappear. Something bad happened,” she said.

McAndrew is listed as a missing persons case. Unofficially, however, it’s considered a homicide.

“I don’t think Kim got out of the Canadian Tire parking lot,” said Tom Martin, a retired police detective.

Martin spent long hours on the case looking for McAndrew. He even searched a well in Point Pleasant Park.

He’s convinced she trusted the wrong person.

“If someone would've grabbed Kim she would've screamed her head off," he said. "Then you've got to look at it and say what are the other ways … and trickery is something that is used a lot in abductions."

Just last year, police dug up a property in Shad Bay, owned by the brother of a convicted sex offender, Andrew Johnson.

“Johnson is a person I would call a very, very strong person of interest,” Martin said.

Martin has moved on, but this case is still close to him. He said he believes it still can be solved — with more time and resources given to detectives, and with someone giving up a secret.

Watson is hopeful that speaking about her memories will trigger someone else’s.

"She just walked out of the store and disappeared. I don't know if, where she was taken from, but it's hard," Watson said.

Halifax Regional Police said there are no new developments in the case.

The province is offering up to $150,000 as a reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for McAndrew's disappearance.