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.
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.”
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.
“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.
Anyone with information about Samuel Bird’s disappearance is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.
Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.
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