By Stephanie Stevens

Special to e-KNOW

Hilda Byman leans back in her chair, her brown eyes soften as she describes her 12-year-old daughter, Brenda.

“She was such a pretty girl, and so shy,” Hilda said. “She never had a boyfriend; really only had one close girlfriend. She was always home with us (in Dry Gulch). I can close my eyes now and see her standing at the window at night, gazing outside.”

For Hilda, Brenda will remain that shy 12-year-old forever.

She will remain that way forever because 51 year ago, on Mother’s Day, she walked out of Wilmer towards Lake Enid with four other youths, and was never seen again. At least not by her family, or the hundreds of searchers who for two weeks combed the area where it was believed she disappeared.

“Brenda was such a sweet girl, so quiet,” recalls Hilda. “I remember when I got pregnant with Albert, Ingvar said what would I do? I was finally going to have a break as Brenda was going to school, and Doreen was a toddler, and here I was with another baby.”

Hilda pauses and laughs softly.

“Brenda was six, and she said ‘don’t worry daddy, I will wash all of Albert’s diapers.’ Well Ingvar, as a joke, bought her a little washtub and scrub board. But Brenda was serious, and every day she came home and washed Albert’s diapers with that little scrub board. And oh she would be mad if I used the gas washer. She would say ‘that’s MY job!’ She just loved Albert, and would push him around in the carriage saying it was her little brother.

“She was spending the weekend (she disappeared) with my mother in Wilmer. They got a call from the neighbours saying they were playing a game and needed another person, and could Brenda come up? Well my mother thought it would be nice for Brenda to be with other young people and let her go. Then later they called again, saying the game was going so well, could Brenda stay the night? And my mother again said yes.  My mother could not believe anything would happen to her.”

But something did. The next morning the five youths, Vivian Barrett, Edward Carson, John Carson and Elwood Godlien, went swimming at Lake Enid, five km north of Wilmer. But Brenda never returned and no one seemed to have the same story.

“Someone knows something. I spoke to the one boy, and he admitted to me he seduced Brenda. But no one believed me and he wouldn’t admit it after. There were so many rumours, so many lies. Everyone had a different story.” Hilda’s eyes no longer seem nostalgic. They are clear, but filled with pain, and a weary desire.

All she wants, Hilda says, is to know, before she dies, what happened to her daughter.

That is all anyone in the family wants at this point.

News stories have been in the paper off and on ever since Brenda’s disappearance, all with the same basic details and plea: if anyone knows anything, please come forward.

“People don’t understand that love is forever,” said Albert Byman, the youngest of the Byman siblings. “We’ll never give up. We are not looking for vengeance, we are looking for closure.”

Ingvar Byman, the family patriarch, never stopped searching for her.  Albert recalls him standing by the window in their Dry Gulch home, just staring out into the darkness. And the searching never stopped.

“He died wondering. I really believe it killed him,” Albert said. “After four heart attacks and then lung cancer he died at 59.”

Albert has also dealt with the effects of May 7, 1961 on his health.

“I have had issues with anxiety my entire life,” he said. “It has just been in the past few years I have understood through therapy that is all goes back to Brenda going missing. I remember that day well. We were picking her up in Wilmer from my Grandma’s and then going for dinner for Mother’s Day. But she wasn’t there.”

The big sister that adored him was gone. And his family would never be the same.

“Dad never, never got over it. Imagine living in the same area as the people you believed had something to do with, or at least knew about, your daughter going missing and never being able to do anything about it.”

Hilda echoed her son’s words, saying Ingvar would come home, eat, then go out and search for anything, any clue about where his daughter was. Every time a new story surfaced, it would renew that hope of finding her, but it never happened.

And while a massive search – the largest in valley history – was conducted, there are those who believe the search never happened in the right place.

Doreen Beninger, Brenda’s younger sister, said on the 40th anniversary of Brenda’s disappearance, the family received a call.

“It was a local man who was with the original search, with the main tracker who organized it, the best tracker in the valley. He said ‘she was never in that area (Strawberry Draw). You are looking in the wrong place.’”

“Something just isn’t right. It never has been,” she said. “I remember that day and all the weeks after so well. We all went to Grandma’s and just stayed there. The men would go out constantly.”

Doreen has her own theories as to what happened, she said, but one of the questions that bothers her most is why, when the boys involved were all questioned, was the only other girl in the group, Vivian Barrett, never questioned?

That, and the changing stories from the other youth involved that day has also bothered RCMP Cpl. Brent Ayers.

“According to the records and testimony, she went hiking with Vivian, Edward, John and Elwood to Lake Enid,” Ayers said. “At about 2:30 p.m. Vivian and Edward left Lake Enid. Brenda, John and Elwood remained at the lake for a short while.”

That is where all the stories seem to fall apart.

“First the boys who were with her (John and Elwood) said at 4:30 p.m. she decided to head up a hill towards home from where they were,” Ayers said. “They called to her she was going the wrong way, but she allegedly told them to shut up and kept going. Years later, John admitted to having sex with her twice on the day she went missing and further said he asked if Elwood could have sex with her. Then he said she refused and started to run away, and they chased her as she headed into a wooded area up Strawberry Draw (just east of Lake Enid). Both boys said they heard a car in the distance. Vivian was never questioned. She apparently always had a note from a doctor that said she could not be interviewed regarding Brenda Byman.”

Audrey Pepin, Brenda’s eldest sister, said there is no way Brenda would have told anyone to shut up.

“It literally was not something she could have said,” Audrey stressed. “She was so shy she could barely look up at a person, let alone tell anyone to shut up.” Audrey went out on all the searches for Brenda, and like the rest of the family, has kept copies off all reports and newspaper stories written over the years.

“There have been so many lies, rumours, stories… of course we would like to know exactly what happened, but if we could at least have a service for her, have closure.”

But to do that conclusively, some portion of Brenda’s remains would need to be recovered.

There are two places that have been identified as potential sites of her remains. One is still being investigated to evaluate its potential.

The other is Barbour’s Field.

Ed, John and Brenda had been in a small shack on the western edge of Barbour’s Field when Brenda allegedly ran away.

“All three men were polygraphed 30 years later and they did pass it, but after 30 years it is hard to say how accurate it is. I mean, that is 30 years of preparation for such a thing,” Ayers said.  “It was pointed out that Elwood Godlien was the only one who showed any remorse over Brenda’s disappearance.”

And while John Carson insisted the intercourse was consensual, Ayers has a hard time buying that as well.

“He was 17, and she had just turned 12 two months prior,” he said. “By all accounts she was a shy little girl, always at home, and that just does not jive. None of it does.”

Ayers noted he was also told by one of the original trackers, who is noted as highly experienced, that Brenda was never in Strawberry Draw.

“He was adamant that there were absolutely no tracks (on the Draw). He also noted that at the break of dawn, one of the Carson boys and his mother were at the staging area of the search at Munn Lake. By 8 a.m. that morning the shake and sawdust pile in Barbour’s Farm was burning. He and his partner went to the pile and noted there were several shoe and boot tracks around the 16 foot circumference pile, also noting an area burning on the hill side of the pile, about half way up and into it. He was never comfortable with (the origins of) this fire,” the police officer said.

The men returned to the slag pile at about 10 a.m., but it was too hot to get close to.  The pile was located about 250 metres from the shack Carson admitted having intercourse with Brenda in.

Ayres considers the information, and the source, to be highly credible, and would like to do an archeological dig at the site of the fire in the hope of finding, and identifying, Brenda’s remains.

“After 50 years it is difficult to wade through the rumours on a file such as this,” Ayers said, adding the case is one he does not intend to give up on.

“In 1961 the Invermere area was full of miners, loggers, ranchers and people who knew how to live and flourish in the back country, probably more so that what could be expected of the present generation. Many of the men (of that day) had military experience from the Second World War and knew what they were looking for with regards to coming across human remains or artifacts. There is no doubt that the area was scoured up and down, including dredging of both Lake Enid and Munn Lake. The wetlands and their tributaries were searched almost monthly until well into 1962. Nothing has ever surfaced.”

During the search, human remains from a missing male from the 1930s was located, providing credence, Ayers added, to the caliber of the searchers.

“I I believe Brenda met with foul play and regardless of the time that has elapsed, Brenda is still a young 12-year-old girl who shouldn’t be forgotten. And I won’t forget.”

Ayers welcomes all input into the case, and can be reached at the Columbia Valley RCMP Detachment at 250-342-9292.

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