Samantha Goodyear, 20, a bright Memorial University student with aspirations of becoming a teacher, disappeared from her apartment on Summer Street in St. John’s Monday.
Goodyear is about 5' 3" and 125 pounds, with black shoulder-length hair with blonde roots, and hazel eyes.
Her parents, Gilbert and Viola of Carmanville, have been staying at her apartment with her beloved dog, Jake, since Monday night.
Jake had been staying with her parents.
They have been scouring the city, putting up posters, talking to neighbours, friends and police.
“I want everyone out there to keep their eyes peeled,” Gilbert said.
“No matter how small a detail they might think it is, how stupid they might think it is.”
During their last few conversations with their daughter on Sunday, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, they said.
With Samantha in St. John’s, and the rest of family at home in Carmanville, she chatted over the phone with both parents that evening while they all watched “Mr. Bean” on TV.
The next afternoon, the Goodyears had missed three calls from Samantha’s home phone number — at 4:16, 4:18 and 4:20 p.m.
“So I assume she was just pushing redial,” Viola said. “But she didn’t call my cell.”
By 7:30 p.m., they couldn’t reach her — and the thought that something was wrong crossed Viola’s mind temporarily.
Samantha would call to check in every day, often multiple times, so it was unusual that they couldn’t reach her.
“Because she lived alone, we kind of liked to keep some idea of where she (was),” Viola said.
After a friend in St. John’s checked on Samantha’s apartment and didn’t find her there, the Goodyears hopped in the car just after 10 p.m. without much more than the clothes on their backs.
The walls of her small, neat apartment are now mostly bare. The Goodyears have taken down the pictures and certificates looking for a note, a phone number — anything that could lead them to their daughter’s whereabouts.
“They’re saying, they got nowhere to start searching. They’re basically walking in the dark and I’m f--king heart-broken, pardon the language.” - Gilbert Goodyear
Samantha’s iPod, laptop and cellphone charger were left in her home. A painting she started about a month ago was found partially finished.
Gilbert and Viola said their daughter did not appear depressed or in danger of harming herself.
The proud, protective parents said their daughter graduated from high school as valedictorian — they wanted her to pursue college in Gander so she’d be close to home, but she had her heart set on MUN so they supported it.
Samantha plays keyboard and adores classical music, they said — the ringtone on her cordless phone at her apartment is Beethoven’s “Für Elise.”
At the time of The Telegram’s interview, that phone didn’t stop ringing.
The Goodyears haven’t heard much news, however.
Const. Greg Hobbs, the RNC’s missing person co-ordinator, said he’s worked on almost 200 missing persons files this year, and nearly all of those people have been found.
“There is always that 0.1 per cent,” he added.
Police are following up on tips so they can begin to focus their search.
“They’re saying, they got nowhere to start searching,” Gilbert said. “They’re basically walking in the dark and I’m f--king heart-broken, pardon the language.”
The last number called on Samantha’s cellphone was that of her 17-year-old brother in Carmanville, but it’s not known if that was before or after she called her parents Sunday evening, or if she even reached him.
Her phone, which is missing from the apartment, has now either been turned off or has run out of battery power.
Anyone with information can call the RNC at 729-8000.
kbreen@thetelegram.com
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Shes home!