A retiring RCMP member and an Island family are teaming up to renew an appeal to the public for information related to one of PEI's oldest cold cases.
Eileen Faye Williams was just 19 years old when she was last seen on August 6, 1962. The teenager was the youngest of seven siblings who grew up in Beach Point, PEI. Eileen had moved to Hamilton, Ontario some years earlier but she would come home every summer to visit her family. It was on one of these annual trips that she disappeared.
"Based on information gathered at the time, Eileen was considering going to a party in Montague on the night she disappeared," says Cpl. Alexis Triantafillou of the PEI RCMP Major Crime Unit. "She was last seen around 7 pm on August 6, 1962, just outside Montague on the road that leads towards Murray River and Beach Point."
When last seen, Eileen was wearing a green sweater, and black slacks with a white stripe. Extensive searches were carried out by RCMP and volunteers in the area in the weeks and months after she was last seen. Her return plane ticket to Hamilton was never used, and her bank account remained untouched for several years until it was turned over to her surviving relatives. Her disappearance is considered suspicious.
Sixty years later, Eileen's immediate family members are all deceased, but she still has many nieces, nephews and cousins who all remember her fondly. They are sharing photos of Eileen that have never been made public before in an effort to tell people who Eileen was, and to renew their appeal for help to find her.
"We know that time is not on our side, and that anyone who knows what happened to Eileen may not be around much longer," her family writes in a newly released statement. "We want people to know that Eileen was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin and a friend - not a day goes by that we don't think about her."
View the full statement from the family.
Statement from the family of Eileen Faye Williams
Aunt Eileen is still talked about most days among our family members, even sixty years after she was last seen. She was only 19 when she disappeared, but she had already accomplished so much. She finished high school, took stenography courses, and got a job working as a secretary in a law office in Hamilton, Ontario. She lived with her sister Eva there, and shared a room with two young nieces. We still remember her playing with us, tickling us, and taking us for treats and outings.
Eileen was the baby of the family, and she was so close with her siblings. Every summer, she would come home to Beach Point to visit family. She always brought presents for her nieces and nephews when she came home. We used to get so excited when we knew she was coming to visit, it was such a big deal to have an aunt who lived in Ontario. She was so popular, and pretty. She was outgoing, kind and fun-loving.
On the day Eileen was last seen, her sister-in-law Pearle drove her Montague. She dropped her off at the post office to mail post cards. Eileen also planned to do some errands and visit with some girlfriends from her high school days. She told Pearle that if she didn't stay over with those friends, she would return to Beach Point. Eileen was last seen around 7 p.m. leaving Montague presumably to hitchhike home to Beach Point.
When Eileen didn't return that night her family assumed she had stayed with her friends. However, when she didn't come home the next day, they became worried and began trying to locate her. The day after that they reported her as missing to the Montague RCMP who immediately began their search and investigation. The days, weeks, and months that followed were incredibly difficult on all of Eileen's family and friends. Her sister, Esther, was expecting a baby at the time and family members recall she was so upset they were concerned about her health as well.
It was a traumatic time for the whole community. There are many people here who still remember the search parties, more than 150 volunteers covering every square foot from Montague to Beach Point, the men out with sticks searching the roadside grass. There were extensive searches of the swampy area outside of Montague.
Eileen's mother passed away the following year - some say of a broken heart. Her father followed two years later – they never got the answers for what happened to their daughter.
Eileen's siblings have also all passed now, but there are many of her nieces and nephews and other family members who knew her, who loved her, and who still want answers. We want people to know that Eileen was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin and a friend - not a day goes by that we don't think about her.
Our hope is still that she will be found, and that we will have the answers her whole family has been waiting sixty years for.
We know that time is not on our side, and that anyone who knows what happened to Eileen may not be around much longer. If you have information that could help bring Eileen home, please contact police. If you were around at that time and know anything about what happened that night, even if you think it's really trivial, please contact police.
Please come forward so that her family can feel some closure. Please help bring Eileen home.
Letter from niece of Eileen Faye Williams
When we were little growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, and I remember one Christmas - I would have been seven I think, so it was Christmas 1961, and this present came from Aunt Eileen (she was living in Ontario at that time). My mother was so excited to see the big box it was in, and she was so sure it was a new dress that she let me open it early so I could wear it to the Christmas concert at the school (one room schoolhouse in those days). Well, we opened it up only to find this beautiful pink quilted housecoat. We used to laugh about that in later years a lot. So much for the new dress for the concert. But it speaks to her generosity and kindness, considering she would have been only a teenager at the time.
I want to say a big thank you to the PEI RCMP for pursuing this. It means a lot to us that you are willing to spend your time working on this after all these years, trying to find answers.
Pauline Campbell, niece of Eileen Faye Williams
Any requests for interviews with the family of Eileen Faye Williams will be facilitated through the PEI RCMP Media Relations Officer.
Cpl. Alexis Triantafillou first read Eileen's file in 2019, and was immediately compelled.
"She was just a young girl, and she had so many family members that clearly still cared so deeply about her," he says. "It just stuck with me. She deserves to be found. She deserves to come home."
Now retiring himself after 27 years with the RCMP, Triantafillou is appealing to the public to come forward with any details that may help police locate Eileen, or to discover what happened to her when she disappeared.
"Because of the significant span of time we are working with, anyone who knew Eileen, or who may have been involved in her disappearance, has passed away or would be well into their senior years," said Triantafillou. "We are hoping that this new information will help jog memories, or maybe encourage people to come forward with information they haven't shared before. I haven't given up hope that she will be found, and neither has her family."
Anyone who may have information regarding the 1962 disappearance of Eileen Faye Williams is asked to contact the PEI RCMP Major Crime Unit at 902-566-7112. Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).