The Vanishing of the Jack Family: A Chilling Canadian Mystery

[00:00:00] The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.

[00:00:33] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young, and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares. On August 2nd, 1989, the Jack Family, Ronnie, Doreen, and their two young sons Russell and Ryan disappeared without a trace.

[00:00:56] An indigenous family from Prince George, British Columbia seemingly just vanished after Ronnie accepted an unexpected job offer. What was meant to be a fresh start for the struggling family would become one of the most chilling mysteries in the province's history. The night of their disappearance, Ronnie met a man at a local bar, an encounter that would set the course for this tragedy.

[00:01:21] The stranger, a tall Caucasian man with reddish brown hair and a full beard, offered Ronnie and Doreen lucrative work at a remote logging camp, promising them well-paid jobs and even daycare for their young children. The family, eager for a new opportunity, packed up and left their home in a pickup truck accompanied by this man. And that was the last anyone saw of them. All four members of the Jack Family.

[00:01:49] In the decades since, countless investigations have yielded no answers. No bodies, no concrete leads, just unanswered questions like, Who was this man who lured the Jack Family with empty promises? Why has there been no trace of them since, despite extensive searches? And what happened to Ronnie, Doreen, Russell and Ryan after getting into that pickup truck?

[00:02:18] So, dim the lights, put your phone down and listen to the story of the Jack Family's disappearance, a mystery that has haunted British Columbia for over 30 years. So let's jump right in. Ronnie and Doreen Jack were both members of the Cheslata Carrier Nation and, like so many Indigenous families, they carried the scars of a traumatic past that few could ever truly understand.

[00:02:45] Both had grown up living on the reservation during one of Canada's darkest eras when the residential school system was utilized, which had torn apart families and disrupted Indigenous cultures for generations. Their lives were filled with difficult moments and trauma, but they were always surrounded by a strong community. For Doreen, this trauma began early. Her mother abandoned her and her sister when they were little,

[00:03:13] and their father took his anger and frustrations out on them physically and emotionally. As a young child, she was sent to Le Jack Residential School, where she would face years of neglect and emotional torment. For those who are unfamiliar with the residential schools in Canada, these were government-funded, church-run institutions. Their goal? To assimilate Indigenous children into Western European culture,

[00:03:41] erasing Indigenous languages, traditions, and identities. The first residential schools were established in the 1870s, and the last one didn't close until 1996, which is insane to think about. It really was not that long ago. More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and communities,

[00:04:06] often under the threat of legal action or physical punishment for parents who resisted. So this would have been an incredibly traumatic experience for Doreen. When Le Jack closed, she was moved to a live-in Catholic school, which is where she would begin dating Ronnie Jack. The two had grown up on the same reservation in the same small community, so they were already familiar with one another. However, as young teens now in love,

[00:04:36] they quickly became inseparable, spending all of their time together. Ronnie came from a large family with six brothers, and he was known to be very close to his mother, Mabel. He's been described as hardworking, an outdoorsman, and a great match for Doreen. However, life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Doreen was sexually assaulted by another student at this Catholic school,

[00:05:02] and she became pregnant with her first son, Russell, when she was just 17 years old. Doreen and Russell drifted apart as she tried to find her footing as a new, young mother and dealt with the aftermath of conceiving a child as a result of a rape. Even though it was traumatic, she loved little Russell dearly. Doreen would move back into her father's home to try to raise her baby in a safe space, but it was a tense situation.

[00:05:31] She didn't always get along with his new wife. Shortly after that, he would pass away from cancer, so she decided to try to track down her mother to see if they could maybe reconnect. But that did not go over well. Basically, Doreen's mother wanted nothing to do with her or her new grandson, Russell. A few years later, she and Ronnie would eventually find their way back to one another and begin their romantic relationship again.

[00:06:01] According to Ronnie's mother, Mabel, who they had lived with and was like a second mother to Doreen, they seemed happy together as a couple. Ronnie embraced little Russell as a father and treated the young boy as if he was his own biological son. Then, in July of 1985, they welcomed their second child, a son who they named Ryan, and they navigated the uncertainties of parenthood together.

[00:06:29] Despite the happiness from growing their family, life was far from kind to the Jacks. By the late 1980s, Ronnie's back injury from working at the sawmill had left him unable to work. Without a steady income, the family was forced to rely on social assistance. As they struggled to make ends meet, they made the difficult decision to move to Prince George in search of better job opportunities.

[00:06:57] But what awaited them in the city was not the fresh start that they had dreamed of. The family moved into a small three-bedroom home located on Strathacona, close to Highway 16. While living there, their financial situation continued to deteriorate. Ronnie, desperate to provide as the man of the house, struggled to find any work that could support his growing family,

[00:07:22] which only made him feel as if he were a failure because he was an incredibly proud man. He desperately wanted to work, but job prospects were in short supply. Behind closed doors, the pressures of their situation were taking a toll on Ronnie and Doreen's relationship. What had once been a hopeful family was now unraveling under the weight of poverty, unresolved trauma, and increasing violence.

[00:07:52] Witnesses have reported seeing Ronnie becoming physically violent with Doreen on several occasions. Doreen, who had already suffered so much abuse in her past, began to drink to numb the pain. It's been alleged that Doreen had been caught stealing cough medicine for her sick child because she couldn't afford to buy it, and that Ronnie was deeply indebted to someone he had borrowed money from, though it's not clear who the money was owed to.

[00:08:21] It was a really difficult situation that was about to get even worse. On the evening of August 1st, 1989, Ronnie was at the First Leader Pub in Prince George, a local watering hole where he had become a regular. It has been described as a bit of a dive and is now permanently closed, but it was close enough to the Jack family home that Ronnie could walk to and from within maybe 10 minutes,

[00:08:49] making it convenient because they didn't have a working vehicle. It was at the First Leader Pub that he would encounter a stranger who would change the course of their lives forever. This man was not known to any of the bar patrons or the staff working there that night. He's been described as a tall, Caucasian male in his late 30s to early 40s, standing roughly 6 feet to 6 feet 5 and weighing around 200 to 275 pounds.

[00:09:19] He's also been described by witnesses as not being overweight but built solid. He had a memorable appearance. Reddish-brown hair that fell to the bottom of his ears, parted to one side, and a full mustache and short beard. He wore a cap, a red checkered work shirt, faded blue jeans, a blue nylon jacket, and work boots with leather fringes over the toes.

[00:09:46] The kind of rugged attire you'd expect from someone familiar with hard outdoor labor. The stranger struck up a conversation with Ronnie, and before long, he made an offer that seemed almost too good to pass up. He promised the Jack family jobs at a logging camp near Klukal's Lake. The work was supposed to start immediately and pay very well. He assured them that transportation to the camp would be provided,

[00:10:14] because again, neither Ronnie nor Doreen had a working vehicle at the time. For Ronnie, this sounded like the break that he had been desperately searching for. Struggling to make ends meet, he saw the opportunity as a chance to finally provide for his family again, away from the financial strain that had been suffocating them. Just before midnight, this unknown man and Ronnie were seen leaving the bar and heading back towards the Jack family home.

[00:10:44] If Ronnie wanted to take this man up on his offer, the family would have to leave immediately. Back at the house, he called his brother to see if he could watch the kids while he and Doreen worked at the camp. He said they'd only be gone around 10 days, max two weeks. His brother told them that he just couldn't do it. But that was okay, because when this unidentified man heard that they couldn't find childcare,

[00:11:10] he offered Ronnie and Doreen free daycare at the camp for their sons, Russell and Ryan. And this was a deal that Doreen and Ronnie just couldn't refuse. As Doreen began packing the family up, Ronnie called his mother in the very early morning hours and told her the good news. He relayed to her that they'd be gone for about 10 days, maybe up to two weeks, but they'd be back before school was set to start for Russell. He also added,

[00:11:40] Mom, if I don't come back, look for me at the house, or something to that effect. An odd statement, almost like he felt like maybe things were far too perfect to be real. Then the Jack family packed their belongings into a pickup truck driven by this mysterious man, and they were never seen again. A little less than a month later, after not hearing from them, Ronnie's mother, Mabel went out to their home to look for them,

[00:12:09] just as her son had instructed her to do. But there was no sign of any members of the Jack family. It was clear that they had taken some of their belongings, but definitely not enough for them to be gone such a long time. On August 25th, 1989, Ronnie and Doreen Jack, along with their two young sons, Russell and Ryan, were officially reported missing. For nearly three weeks, no one had heard from the family,

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[00:14:33] Now back to our story. Police arrived at the Jack family home in Prince George to find most of their belongings untouched. Clothes, school records, all of their personal items were just left behind as if the family had simply vanished without a trace. It was clear that they had every intention of returning home at some point. Unfortunately, during the initial investigation, the Jack family faced systemic barriers

[00:15:02] when it came to law enforcement's attention and resources, meaning at times, it felt as if the police weren't really looking and it was now up to their own family members to search. The only real lead that they had to go on was that chance encounter Ronnie had just weeks earlier at the First Leader pub, the stranger who offered him and Doreen jobs at that remote logging camp. What was really concerning about this mystery man's offer

[00:15:31] was his urgency. He insisted that the family leave that very night and even offered to drive them to the camp personally. Again, it all seemed too good to be true, but as soon as they left their home with this stranger, they vanished. Despite the release of a sketch based on witness descriptions of this man, no one came forward with any information about who this mystery man might be. So what was his deal?

[00:16:00] Was he an opportunist, preying on a vulnerable family? Or was there something more sinister at play? A larger criminal operation? Despite extensive efforts to track him down, police could not confirm whether the logging job that he promised even existed or where this alleged logging camp might be located. There was no place to look and no one to question, so the case was basically in limbo.

[00:16:28] But then in January 1996, nearly seven years after the family's disappearance, an unexpected tip came in. A brief, cryptic phone call that police hoped would reignite the investigation. On the morning of January 28th, at 8.33 a.m., an unknown man called the Vanderhoof police with a startling message. He said, The Jack family are buried in the south end of...

[00:16:57] something... ranch. The call lasted no longer than 10 seconds, and the voice was gone before the dispatcher could ask a single question. Investigators were left with nothing but the brief, haunting message. They appealed to the public, asking for the caller to come forward. When that didn't work, they released the recording of the voice, hoping that someone might recognize it. But no one claimed to.

[00:17:27] The voice was analyzed by experts at the University of British Columbia in an effort to trace the caller. Although police were eventually able to determine that the call had been made from a house in Stony Creek, B.C., where a house party had taken place at the time, the caller's identity remained a mystery. Despite further investigations and appeals, the tip led nowhere, and the caller was never found. For the Jack family,

[00:17:57] the discovery of this unsettling tip only added to the already long list of unanswered questions. Had they really been buried on a ranch as the caller suggested? Or was it just a prank call? Another useless piece of information in a case filled with dead ends. In 2018, the RCMP, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, announced that another strange tip had come in and they urged the tipster to come forward.

[00:18:26] This individual had both phoned in a report and sent an anonymous letter to a third party. Could this be the same tipster who previously contacted authorities? We don't know because this person has never self-identified. They've never been able to be questioned. Police pursued every lead, conducting hundreds of interviews and combing through thousands of documents in search of answers. With the help of advanced technology, including ground-penetrating radar,

[00:18:56] search teams combed areas near Klugel's Lake and other sites believed to be connected to the family's disappearance. Still, no trace of the Jack family has been found. To this day, we still don't know the truth behind their disappearance. That mystery man who first offered them a job, the cryptic phone call that followed years later, and the frustrating lack of substantial evidence all contribute to the chilly mystery of their fate. So,

[00:19:25] what happened to the Jack family? Well, there are a few theories, and we're going to talk about them now. Unfortunately, since the family has not been seen or heard from after all of this time, the leading theory is that they have been met with foul play. It is widely believed that the man who approached Ronnie Jack at the bar offering him that job at a remote logging camp may have been using the promise of work as a lure into a deadly trap.

[00:19:55] For what reason? We don't know. He offered Ronnie everything that he could have possibly dreamed of. High wages, benefits, and even daycare for the children. For a family struggling to survive, it must have seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime. But there was something unsettling about the offer from the start. The urgency with which the man pushed Ronnie and Doreen to go immediately into the night that raises

[00:20:25] red flags. Seemingly even to Ronnie because during his last conversation with his mother, he said something that would haunt her for years to come. If I don't come back. Why would he say that? Did he feel in his gut that something wasn't quite right? It makes the whole situation all that more tragic. He was weary of this strange man but his desperation to provide for his family, it may have clouded his judgment.

[00:20:54] But the question remains, who was this man and why did he choose the Jacks? Some have theorized that the family may have been targeted by a serial offender. There are numerous other cases from this area where victims, often indigenous women and children, have vanished without a trace. However, despite the eerie similarities between the Jack family's case and other known disappearances, no direct link has ever been established between the family

[00:21:23] and any known serial offenders. Actually, the disappearance of an entire family like this missing for decades? I haven't heard of anything like this happening in Canada before. For someone to cause an entire family to disappear after all of this time and have no answers, it's shocking. If we take the theory of foul play off the table, perhaps this man's offer was legitimate. Maybe he really did mean well. Maybe he had every intention of helping them out.

[00:21:53] But there was some kind of tragic accident versus a crime committed. We are absolutely playing devil's advocate here because I don't think anyone really believes this. And even if this did happen, there are still glaring questions that remain unanswered. If the family did suffer from a tragic accident after leaving with this stranger, why didn't the man report it? Why has his identity remained a mystery? Why hasn't he come forward, especially after such a devastating event?

[00:22:22] In my humble and non-professional opinion, this just doesn't seem likely. Another theory is that the Jack family were victims of human trafficking. I hate even suggesting it. It makes my stomach turn. However, it does need to be acknowledged. Indigenous people, particularly Indigenous women and children, are disproportionately vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers often operate under the guise of legitimate job offers,

[00:22:51] promising employment or a better life to lure their victims. Also, this stranger's immediate willingness to pick the family up and then just whisk them away in the dead of night, it could be seen as an effort to isolate them from any potential rescuers or witnesses. He didn't give them any chance to talk to somebody and for that person to be like, don't do this, that's not safe. The idea that the Jack family was deliberately targeted by traffickers makes their

[00:23:21] disappearance even more horrifying. It's a stark reality that vulnerable families desperate for a chance at a better life are preyed upon by predators with no conscience. And it is not lost on me that they did disappear near Canada's infamous Highway of Tears, which is well known for being people, particularly Indigenous people, disappear, many of which are tied to exploitation and trafficking.

[00:23:50] We can't ignore the fact that the man who was seen offering Ronnie this job and picking the family up in his truck has been described by witnesses as white. So was the Jack family perhaps the victim of a hate crime? Indigenous people, especially women and children, are overrepresented among victims of violence and disappearances in rural and isolated areas of Canada. It's a fact that has long been a painful

[00:24:19] truth for many communities. The Jack family, struggling with poverty and a lack of support systems, may have been seen as particularly vulnerable by someone targeting them just for being Indigenous. They may have been signaled out as a target just because of their heritage. Despite decades of exhausted efforts, the mystery of the Jack family's disappearance remains unsolved. Despite the police's best attempts and

[00:24:49] numerous leads, no one has been able to uncover the truth of what happened to Ronnie, Doreen, Russell, and Ryan. However, their case continues to haunt and inspire those who are determined to seek justice for missing Indigenous families. There is a Facebook page called Missing Jack family out of Prince George and it's run by the family. You can go there and you can learn more about this case directly from those who loved and knew the Jacks.

[00:25:17] It offers a heartbreaking but important look into their lives and it serves as a powerful reminder of the personal toll that these disappearances take on families left behind. I highly recommend you check it out. I will have the link in my show notes. It keeps their memory alive and it gives a voice to those who are seeking closure. The Jack family's case is not just a tragedy in and of itself. It's also a cry for systemic change.

[00:25:46] It's a stark reminder of the crisis of missing Indigenous people all across Canada, a crisis that remains under addressed and underfunded by authorities. The family's disappearance is just one piece of a much larger, deeply troubling pattern. other high-profile cases, like the disappearances of women along the Highway of Tears, remain unsolved, leaving behind a legacy of fear, pain, and

[00:26:16] unanswered questions. These stories demand public attention and they demand action. Above all else, they demand justice. The voices of the missing cannot be ignored any longer. If you have any information about the Jack family, please contact Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or you can even submit a tip anonymously. Just contact Crimestoppers at

[00:26:45] 1-800-222-8477 or online at pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube, so go check it out. I'm also on Patreon. If you'd like to get your Serial Napper episodes ad-free, you can do so at

[00:27:14] patreon.com slash Serial Napper. Until next time, sweet dreams, stay kind, especially in the comments. Bye.