Command post set up as search for missing Edmonton teen Samuel Bird enters 14th week
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Alanna Bird is living a parent’s worst nightmare.
Every day she is down in Edmonton’s river valley, searching for her missing child. Samuel Bird, 14, hasn’t been seen in more than 14 weeks.
“You feel so hopeful when you first go out. You’re just thinking like, ‘Today’s the day.’ And then when you come back and you haven’t found anything… You kind of feel let down,” Alanna said on Monday.
“I feel like I let my kids down because they’re asking if we found him today. So it is hard.”
Samuel was seen on the evening of June 1, leaving his home to visit a friend in the Canora neighbourhood in the west end.
The Edmonton Police Service said he was later reported to be seen leaving the friend’s home on foot, but never returned home.
He has not been seen by friends or family since.
Police said Samuel is known to frequent West Edmonton Mall and is familiar with both the west end and south side.
In late August, police said investigators have determined Samuel’s disappearance to be suspicious and continue to seek tips from the public.
To that end, volunteers established a command post at the Dawson Park boat launch last week. It’s a place for people to gather and get information on areas that need to be searched.
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A command post at the Dawson Park boat launch in Edmonton’s river valley for volunteers searching for Samuel Bird, a 14-year-old who has been missing since June 1, 2025. Photo taken Sept. 8, 2025. Global News
Tilden Rain is one of the volunteers and has helped launch a crisis team.
“This is a crisis. He is a community member, a young man that hasn’t even experienced life yet,” Rain said. “It’s really important to us to be a part of the effort.”
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Pauline Bird is part of Samuel’s extended family and also felt she had to join the search.
“It’s really heartbreaking for myself as a grandmother and great-grandmother,” Bird said. “I’m really hoping that more people can get involved and hopefully he’s found soon. So you could put mom and dad at rest, you know, at peace.”
1:36Family searches for missing Edmonton teen Samuel Bird
The crisis team has taken in donations and is supplying the command post site with water and food for volunteers.
Alanna said that support means everything to her family. She’s surprised at how many volunteers have joined the daily searches — sometimes upwards of 60 people from as far away as Vancouver and Manitoba.
“I see families and kids down here and they’re coming to help and volunteer their time. I couldn’t thank them enough — it just feels it’s not just my son, it is all of our son, you know, because a lot of them see their kids in Sam. It could always be their kid, is what they said,” Alanna said.
Stacy Bull is one of those parents. She has young boys and felt she had to help join the search.
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“My heart is with the mother, for his siblings, for grandmother, for everybody that actually knew him,” Bull said.
“My prayers have been with him every day, that he comes home, he’ll bring mom some closure.”
Samuel Bird, 14, has been missing in Edmonton since June 1, 2025.
Alanna Bird says it’s unlike her son to not contact her or post online. After more than three months of no sign of life, she now speaks of her child in past tense and fears he is gone.
“He was very sweet. He was kind and very polite. He was a gentleman. He had a lot of friends, he was always very funny, very humorous, I’d never seen him kind of be too serious except maybe if he was like a little upset or what not.”
As the leaves turn and nights get cooler, Alanna and her other children are becoming more restless to find him before winter — alive or otherwise.
“My daughters are asking for their brother every day. At least if we find him and they have a place to go visit him — like even his grave — I think that would just kind of put them at ease a little bit,” Alanna said.
“It is hard when they’re sad and when they cry. I just let them know it’s okay to cry and that we miss him too and I just try to validate their feelings that it’s OK for them to feel sad.”
Alanna said police have been very helpful, following up on many leads and keeping in contact. She has her own theories on what may have happened but so far, police have not made any breaks in the case.
People with diving expertise and underwater cameras have joined the search along the North Saskatchewan River. Police have yet to go in and search the river — there isn’t a spot where they have pinpointed to start looking.
The command post site contains pictures of Bird, a ribbon shirt made for him and a fire his family, friends, and searchers say will stay tended and lit until Samuel is found.
“When someone passes, we have a candle there lit for them. It’s kind of like that.”
The Bird family said anyone is welcome to help in the search and donations of food to the site is appreciated.
‘He gave everything his all’: Parents open up after 10-year-old old son killed in North Vancouver boat crash
What was supposed to be a fun day on the water turned into every parent’s worst nightmare for Shelley Klassen and Jason Hall.
Earlier this month, their 10-year-old son, Lionel Hall, was tragically killed when a speedboat crashed into the inflatable tube he and a friend were riding off the shores of Whey-ah-wichen Cates Park in North Vancouver.
Now, just weeks later, Lionel’s parents are sharing their heartbreak, their message, and the legacy of a boy whose light they say continues to shine.
“He really did pack a lot into his 10 little years on this planet of ours,” Klassen told 1130 NewsRadio.
“He gave everything his all. He was a lover of life, an adventurer, a best friend, a funny guy, a sweetheart … He stood up to bullies, he stood out. He was for fairness. He was pure joy in our lives.”CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!
That joy, love, and courage was at the heart of the moving celebration of life held this past weekend.
On Sunday, nearly 600 people came together to honour Lionel’s short but radiant life at Unity of Vancouver Church in a gathering family and friends called “Live Big for Lionel.”
It was, in Klassen’s words, “A journey — one of sadness and devastation, but also of honoring his bigness.”
“We wanted people to understand: you don’t know when your time is up. So, please use Lionel as an inspiration, because this child lived fully and touched so many people on so many levels.”
Lionel made others feel seen, father says
Jason Hall describes his son as a fierce protector and a deeply kind soul.
“He had this beautiful combination,” said Hall.
“He’d jump into a melee to protect his family, but in particular his sister, and then [moments later] he’d be checking that everyone in a game was able to participate — even if they weren’t maybe capable of participating. It was really just sort of this big-heartedness.”
Lionel was the youngest of three children. He shared a room with his older sister his whole life and looked up to his older brother. Both siblings, Hall said, are grappling with “an impossibility” that no family should ever have to endure.
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The tragedy has shaken not only Lionel’s family but the entire community.
Families who regularly visit Whey-ah-wichen Cates Park say they’re still in disbelief that something so devastating could happen in such a familiar and beloved place.
“We live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” said Hall.
“It’s just unfathomable this could happen in our community, but the reality of the situation is that it did, and it cost Lionel his life.”
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The family’s path forward
The man accused of operating the speedboat, which also left Lionel’s friend seriously injured, is scheduled to appear in court this August.
As the legal process unfolds, Lionel’s parents say their son’s passing will serve as a reminder to cherish life and one another.
“Our hearts aren’t just broken. They’re broken open,” said Klassen.
“But my connection to my child is not gone. His little body is gone, but Lionel will never be gone from me. I am completely surrounded by him and his love — he’s uplifting me, keeping me sane, calm, and he’s giving me clarity like I’ve never had before. He’s changed the trajectory of my life, and I am forever grateful.”
Hall added, “We have to find a way forward, for our children, for ourselves. And our hope is that something like this never happens again on these waters and to any family.”
#LiveBigForLionel has now become more than just a touching tribute. It’s a movement of hope and purpose — rooted in the life of a little boy who gave the world his all.
