Sister of Cape Breton man missing for 30 years hopeful amid new search by police

The sister of a Cape Breton man who has been missing for more than 30 years says she is hoping for answers as Nova Scotia RCMP prepare to search a remote area for his remains.

Kenley Matheson was a 20-year-old student at Acadia University when he was last seen walking on Main Street in Wolfville on Sept. 21, 1992.

Kayrene Matheson, who now lives in Arizona, said there have been few developments in her brother's case over the last three decades. But new information came to light in September 2022 in the miniseries Missing Kenley, which explores his disappearance.

Investigators were encouraged to search Melanson Mountain, which is about five kilometres southeast of the university town.

In late May, the Globe and Mail commissioned a search by the International Police Work Dog Association in which a cadaver dog indicated an "area of interest" on the mountain.

"As soon as I heard that Rifle, who is the cadaver dog, potentially found human remains in Melanson Mountain, I immediately felt that this was it," Kayrene Matheson told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Tuesday.

"Like I just felt it in my heart that this was Kenley."

Nova Scotia RCMP have since visited the site with the cadaver dog team and have consulted with the provincial medical examiner, St. Thomas University's anthropology department and Acadia's earth and environmental science department.

'There is no closure'

"Based on the information obtained, the RCMP and our partners are making plans with regard to the best and most effective way to process the site both thoroughly, and safely," Nova Scotia RCMP said in a news release Friday.

Matheson said this development is a "miracle" after three decades of waiting for answers, and she's grateful to the police, the investigators and those involved in the search.

She expects it will take investigators a few weeks to go back to the mountain, and another few weeks to do a proper search of the area. But she's hopeful that answers will be coming by September.

She said getting her hopes up has been "pure torture" in the past, but it's important to find the remains of lost loved ones.

"I know there's a lot of families out there that have missing people and it is just something that you don't even know how to cope with because it's so surreal," she said.

"A lot of people use the word closure — there is no closure. And so it is something that would mean the world to my family.… I just hope for my parents and myself that we can find his remains and bring him home."