N.L. police to provide update in woman’s mysterious disappearance

Police said they found no clues about Lake during a search of the area after Smith’s body was recovered. (pixabay photo)

ST. JOHN’S, N.L.— Police in Newfoundland are expected to provide an update about the presumed murder of Cortney Lake today.

The 24-year-old mother of a young son vanished June 7 after getting into a truck near her home in Mount Pearl, near St. John’s.

A public update was supposed to be provided last Monday, but the news conference was abruptly postponed without explanation.

The haunting case gripped the province and inspired total strangers to help look for the missing woman over the last five months, amid a social media campaign with the hashtag #HelpFindCortney.

Lake’s relatives led extensive ground searches, but her body has not been recovered.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said June 30 it was treating Lake’s disappearance as a homicide.

The body of Lake’s ex-boyfriend, 25-year-old Philip Steven Smith, was discovered two weeks ago in the woods near Bellevue Beach, about an hour west of St. John’s.

Sources quoted in local media reports indicated Smith took his own life, but RCMP have only confirmed a sudden death.

Smith was never named by police as a suspect in Lake’s assumed murder which the force said was an isolated incident _ nor was he charged in connection with it.

Police said they found no clues about Lake during a search of the area after Smith’s body was recovered.

Investigators had earlier said they believed Lake was driven to a secluded, wooded area close to the residential neighbourhood where she was picked up, but did not know where.