‘A really difficult time’: Mother of man missing in suspicious case wants answers

It's been nearly two months since Zackery Kellock of Truro, N.S. went missing. As time passes and questions go unanswered, the missing man's mother maintains hope.

It’s been nearly two months since 23-year-old Zackery Kellock was reported missing. But as the weeks drag on and questions remain unanswered, Joanne Butski, the missing man’s mother, hasn’t lost hope.

“Right off the bat, I knew something was wrong,” she said in an interview with Global News on Saturday, recalling how she learned of Kellock’s disappearance from one of his friends, two days after he was reportedly last seen on Jan. 14.

Upon hearing her son might be missing — a disappearance that police in Truro, N.S. handed to the RCMP on Jan. 30 — she walked to James Street in Truro, where Zackery had been staying with his girlfriend.

“She said that two individuals had picked Zack up at 4 o’clock that afternoon, and he told them he’d be right back. And he didn’t come back,” Butski said. “They messaged the two guys to see where Zack was, and they said they dropped him off at the end of James Street.”

But Kellock never returned. Butski then phoned the Truro police, and an investigation into her son’s disappearance began.

“Since that time, we have determined that Zack was last confirmed to be at an address in Millbrook First Nation and that his disappearance is suspicious in nature,” police said in a January news release, when the disappearance was first deemed to be suspicious.

“As such, we have shared this information with the RCMP, as they are the police of jurisdiction in Millbrook First Nation, where Zack had last been confirmed.”

For Butski, she’s holding on to thoughts of her son’s character.