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Every weekday morning, millions of children walk to school. As they grow older, walking to school without a parent or guardian can be a marker of independence. On a March morning in 1976, 12-year-old Abby Drover was one of those children, walking alone to her elementary school in Port Moody, a small city east of Vancouver. But Abby never arrived at school.
Seemingly vanishing without a trace, Abby's disappearance would reveal a horrific crime, send shockwaves through the community, and make headlines around the world. Part 1: The Disappearance Located on the shores of Burrard Inlet, Port Moody in the 1970s was an oil and lumber port located just 12 miles from downtown Vancouver.
Barnett Highway, the highway leading into Port Moody, runs along the water and around the base of a hill where a cluster of residential houses are situated. One of the houses is number 1617, the house where Abby Drover lived with her mother and two sisters.
At 8 a.m. on the morning of March 10, 1976, Abby, a slim girl with light brown hair, said goodbye to her mother and began her 30-minute walk along Barnett Highway to Moody Elementary School. The early March air was cool, and Abby was wearing a gold ski jacket, blue pants, and brown boots. Her mother, Ruth, had no reason to worry about her daughter's safety.
Historically, Port Moody has had one of the lowest crime rates in British Columbia. And with a population at that time of just under 12,000, the small city offered a quieter life, compared to the bustling urban center of Vancouver, a 40-minute drive away. Ruth was quoted as saying that her daughter doesn't accept rides from strangers, and "She's a good kid, very respectful, who didn't go anywhere without first telling me."
But the family did worry when Abby failed to return home that evening. Ruth finished work around the time school was getting out and drove Abby's route, hoping to spot her and give her a lift home. When Abby didn't turn up, Ruth called her friends, then the school. Ruth drove her was shocked to learn that her daughter had been marked as absent the entire day. So where was Abby? Part 2: The Search
On March 12th, two days after Abby disappeared, the police sought the public's help in finding her. In frantic disbelief, Ruth described her daughter as a happy, loving little girl who always stayed close to home. She added that Abby is "an affectionate child who loves people." She writes poems and draws pictures for friends who are sick.
Port Moody police searched teenage hangouts and spoke to every student in the school to see if Abby was staying with a friend. Finally, a classmate recalled seeing her around 3:30 in the afternoon on the day she disappeared on St. John Street in Port Moody's downtown. But nothing came of the tip. After 48 hours, it appeared that Abby Drover had vanished into thin air. The police suspected foul play.
Three days after Abby was last seen, search parties fanned out across the community. Neighbors, concerned citizens, and some local hockey teams scoured the city streets, the slopes of Burnaby Mountain, and wooded areas on the city's north shore. Using helicopters, trail bikes, and tracking dogs, searchers found several abandoned campsites. But no sign of Abby. Part 3: The Suspect
while searchers combed the rocky terrain around Port Moody. A 26-year-old man showed a man from Vancouver a photo of a 12-year-old girl. He claimed she was his daughter. The girl in the photo looked like Abby, and the Vancouver resident reported the incident to Port Moody police. He also noted that the young man's Oldsmobile had a smashed front end.
Intrigued by the lead and suspicious that a 26-year-old would claim to have a 12-year-old daughter, the police sought the public's help in finding the man. But two days later, they had obtained enough information to rule out the lead. Although the search had failed to turn up any clues to her daughter's whereabouts, Ruth Drover was not giving up. She put out an appeal to anyone who might have information about her daughter.
Please tell Abby she has nothing to fear by coming home. We just want to see her alive and healthy." After discounting other theories, and with no new leads to go on, the police considered the possibility that Abby had run away. Although she didn't fit the profile of a runaway, officers searched malls in Vancouver that were popular with teens on the run. Missing person flyers with Abby's photo were posted throughout the Lower Mainland.
The city of Port Moody and a Vancouver businessman posted a reward totaling $8,500 for information leading to Abby's whereabouts or the arrest and conviction of her abductor. By now, 11 days had passed since Abby Drover was last seen alive east on St. John Street towards her school between 8:10 and 8:20 in the morning.
At the end of March, Fort Moody Police Chief Len McCabe announced that the police were starting the investigation from scratch. He hoped that a new team of officers would notice something the first had missed. But two and a half months would pass with only silence from the police. On May 3rd, Abby turned 13, wherever she was. By the end of June, 111 days had passed since Abby vanished.
But Abby wasn't the only girl to disappear in British Columbia's Lower Mainland. Part 4: Missing Girls and Women In July of 1976, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police formed a special squad to investigate a string of unsolved murders of girls and women, and to look for links between the killings.
The victims ranged in age from 9 to 26. From January 1975 to July 1976, 10 young girls and women had been murdered. Five or more of the cases involved sexual assault. The RCMP wondered if Abby was the 11th victim. An hour's drive east of Port Moody is the town of Mission, where a 34-year-old salesman was being held by police in connection with two of the 10 murders.
Gary Francis Marcoux was charged with murdering 9-year-old Jeanne Duve, whose body was found tied to a tree on the outskirts of Mission. He was also questioned in the sexual assault and murder of 11-year-old Catherine Mary Herbert, whose body was found in an abandoned house on the Matski First Nation. Investigators questioned Marcoux about Abby's disappearance, but were unable to find a link.
August came and went. Nearly six months had passed, and Ruth Drover was giving up hope that she would ever see her daughter again.
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Part 5: The Neighbors September arrived, and with it, the Labor Day weekend. While children in Port Moody tried to enjoy the last long weekend of the summer, they couldn't help but feel the familiar anxiety of the start of a new school term.
But school children were not the only ones feeling anxious. In her house at 1617 Barnett Highway, Ruth Drover had always relied on her neighbors during her now months-long ordeal. Having only moved to Port Moody four months before Abby's mysterious disappearance, she was grateful for their support. Some led search parties, and they helped keep the flame of hope alive that someday Abby would be found.
Two of Ruth's neighbors were Donald Hay and his wife, who lived at 1601 Barnett Highway, just a few doors down. Abby was friends with Donald's stepkids, and Donald often gave his kids, and Abby, lifts to and from school. He was a self-employed carpenter and had a large shop in his garage where he ran a camper building business. Neighborhood kids used to hang out and watch him work on his industrial-sized machines.
During Abby's disappearance, the couple visited Ruth to lend support, and Donald led search parties with Abby's two sisters. But what neither Ruth nor Donald's wife knew was that Donald was deep in his own problems. He was severely depressed and an alcoholic. He wanted to take his life. After finding a drug dealer, he learned what was a safe number of drugs to consume.
He then bought an unsafe amount and checked into a local hotel. With a bottle of liquor, he washed down the pills and passed out. But instead of killing himself, Donald Hay ended up in the hospital for 10 days. After his first suicide attempt, Donald's behavior grew increasingly erratic. On September 6th, Labor Day Monday, his wife and stepkids panicked when he barricaded himself in the garage.
Was he going to be successful this time? Was he going to end his own life? At 10:45 p.m., Donald's wife phoned 911. Constables Paul Adams and Bill Reed took the domestic disturbance call. They drove through the darkness up Gore Street, the access road off Barnett Highway, past Ruth Drover's house, then down a steep drive where a hairpin turn led to Donald Hay's garage.
The officers knocked on a locked door, trying to get Donald's attention. Finally, they broke down the door and entered, along with Donald's wife. But inside, they found no sign of Donald in distress, or otherwise. The shop was empty. What neither the officers nor Donald Hay's wife knew was that Donald was in the garage, just seven feet below it.
An eccentricity of the property, 1601 Barnett Highway had a bomb shelter under the garage. The family had heard of its existence, but believed it was filled in. Except it wasn't. Instead, the 6 by 7 foot concrete room was fitted with a mattress, a composting toilet, and a sink. Donald Hay had attached chains to the wall by the mattress. A single, 60-watt light bulb hung from the ceiling.
Inside this dungeon seven feet below the floor of the garage, Abby Drover was held captive. While the two officers searched the garage, Donald Hay held one hand over Abby's mouth and the other around her throat. Captor and captive listened as the two officers walked around the shop, then had a short conversation with Donald's wife. Abby's heart sank when the garage quieted. The police had left. Part 6: 181 Days Earlier
On March 10th, 1976, Abby dawdled in the morning and missed the friends she often walked to school with. So, she set off on her own. Abby was last seen alive between 8:10 and 8:20 in the morning, walking east on St. John's Street towards her school, just six blocks away. As she hurried along the sidewalk, a car pulled up at the curb. It was Donald Hay.
He offered her a lift, like he had done in the past. In fact, just the day before. On March 9th, Donald picked up his stepdaughter and Abby at the end of the school day and drove them home. The two girls were friends and they eagerly hopped into the car. Abby in the front seat was sandwiched between Donald and his stepdaughter. As he drove the standard transmission vehicle, he shifted gears and his fingers brushed her knee. Abby felt uncomfortable.
She guessed it was an accident, yet it happened on several occasions during the ride. So, when Abby saw Donald's car pull up the next morning and she saw his friendly face, did she hesitate? Perhaps she figured it was only six blocks to school, and this time, she had a seat to herself. But Donald didn't drive her to school. Instead, he circled back to his garage.
Under his workbench, he opened a door revealing stacks of old paint cans. Pushing them aside, he lifted a piece of plywood, which was painted the same blue as the floor of the other cupboards. Underneath this false floor, Abby could see a deep shaft fitted with a ladder. She tried to run, but he grabbed her and forced her down the shaft, then locked her inside his windowless concrete cell. Abby recalls realizing she was in trouble.
serious trouble. Donald stated that they were going to play house and that he wanted her to be his girlfriend. She refused. He chained her when he left and threatened to kill her if she made any noise. As March 10th wore on, Ruth Drover called the police and reported Abby missing. Days later, Donald took part in searches to find Abby. His wife was a friend of Ruth's and both she and Donald visited Ruth's house offering support.
On several occasions, Ruth stood in the garage talking to the couple, only feet from where her daughter was held captive. As the summer wore on, Ruth was giving up hope of ever seeing Abby alive. Despite the tragedy of Abby's disappearance, normal routines in the community took hold once again. Donald and his family set off on a vacation to the Okanagan Valley. Followed by 10 days in Oregon, they would be gone for two weeks.
while Abby languished without food in her suffocating, stench-filled dungeon. Being a religious girl, she wrote notes to Donald, urging him to trust in God. With no access to daylight, Abby kept track of the days by writing on her hand with a ballpoint pen. Her only connection to the outside world was a radio, from which she would no doubt have heard news of her own disappearance. Alone and lonely, she wished for company.
until she heard the paint cans being moved above the hidden entrance to the shaft. Donald Hay was not the company she wanted. He routinely raped and terrorized her. In a fog of alcoholic depression, Donald checked into a hotel and tried to overdose on drugs. Later, he would tell police he left a suicide note so that Abby would be found. No such note was ever located. Abby also wanted to kill herself.
At one point, the 60-watt bulb burned out and Abby laid in the dark, feeling bugs crawling on her. When Donald finally replaced the bulb, she covered the air vent to stop flies from getting in. Water seeped across the floor, soaking the mattress. Bags of soiled toilet paper and garbage littered the floor. Donald refused to empty the toilet. He threatened to kill her and throw her body in Burrard Inlet.
Believing she would die in the cell, she wrote a note identifying Donald Hay as her captor and giving his address. She hid the note in the lining of her boot. On the night of September 6th, when officers Adams and Reed drove away from Donald Hay's house, Abby knew she was going to die. But the two officers didn't get far before they received a second radioed distress call. Donald Hay's wife knew her husband had to be somewhere in the garage because it was locked from the inside.
Looking around, she discovered the entrance of the shaft. And at the bottom of it, she saw his feet. Thinking he had killed himself, she frantically called the police a second time. The two officers drove back to the scene and raced into the garage. But Donald Hay wasn't dead. He was very much alive. They found him crawling out from under his workbench with his pants at his ankles. One of the officers handcuffed him and pulled him away from the workbench. By now, Donald's wife and stepkids had gathered.
A whimpering sound came from the narrow shaft. One of the officers peered into it and saw a ghostly shape. At the bottom, a frail and emaciated child slowly climbed the steps. The officer called to his partner. "It's Abby!" After 181 days, weighing just 80 pounds, wearing the clothes she had vanished in six months earlier, and barely able to walk,
Abby Drover was finally free. On her palm she had penned the number 177. She had lost count by only four days. Part 7: Aftermath On September 7th, 1976, Donald Alexander Hay was charged with kidnapping, rape, gross indecency, and abduction with intent to have sexual intercourse.
As news hit the wires, Port Moody Police Department's tiny switchboard was flooded with calls. Newspapers across Canada and the United States covered the shocking story, and reporters from as far as Germany phoned to confirm details. They couldn't believe what they were reading. On February 3, 1977, Donald Hay pleaded guilty to kidnapping and having sexual intercourse with a girl under 14. He was sentenced to life in prison.
The Drovers moved away from Port Moody. Ruth wanted her daughter to have the chance to grow up in peace. Twenty years later, when Donald Hay first came up for parole, Abby wrote to the parole board asking them to deny his request. She was convinced that he was, and always would be, a very dangerous man. In her words, "I want to be his last victim."
Incredibly, in May of 2000, Donald Hay would be back in court, this time facing new charges that he sexually abused three other girls in the years before he abducted Abby. Surrendering her anonymity, Abby came forward and testified against her abuser. She described how during her captivity, Donald talked about the other victims he'd abused, even comparing their bodies.
He told her he had brought more than one child to the dungeon, or as Abby called it, "the hole." But at the end of the trial, the judge dismissed four of the five new charges and declared a mistrial on the remaining charge. It was alleged that back in 1977, there was a secret plea bargain with Donald. They would drop the other charges in exchange for a guilty plea to spare 13-year-old Abby having to testify in court.
Despite the new charges being dismissed, Donald would remain behind bars for the rest of his life. Or would he? In a Saskatchewan penitentiary, Donald sought counseling for his addictions. He found God. He took up needlepoint and crafted religious images, like the Last Supper. He wanted forgiveness and to start a new life. And he wanted to apologize to Abby.
After completing programs for alcoholism and sexual deviancy, Donald was granted day passes. He enjoyed over 150 escorted and unescorted passes. He spent holiday dinners with his friends and caseworkers' families, becoming affectionately known as "Uncle Don." When his parole came up again, a neighborhood couple stood by him and offered to sponsor him
Incredibly, they had lived near Donald on Barnett Highway at the same time he had abducted Abby. Throughout the years, Abby continued to fight to keep Donald Hay behind bars, and in the end, she was successful. All his parole requests were denied. On June 3rd, 2012, he died of natural causes in a prison hospital.
Now a mother of five and noted for her strength and courage, Abby Drover has never stopped speaking out in support of other child abduction victims.
