Robert Barrington Leigh

[Sher]

In the three days since her son Robert went missing, Iris Barrington Leigh's south-side home has been transformed into a buzzing, 24-hour emergency call centre.

The phone rings constantly, and Iris's other grown children - Christopher, 32, and Rosalind, 34 - have come from Vancouver to create a website, co-ordinate search efforts and distribute posters that have been plastered around the city and in surrounding communities.

On the poster is the smiling face of their 20-year-old brother.

VANISHED SUNDAY

Robert Barrington Leigh, a University of Toronto math scholar, vanished late Sunday, after bicycling from his parents home at 9820 85 St. to meet friends at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival.

He never arrived.

Now the family suspects foul play, and is having flyers posted in areas where "things are likely to be dumped."

They've asked Robert's friends all the usual questions - about drugs, alcohol, depression and suicide - but the math wizard's straight-arrow reputation is well deserved.

"We have that foul play feeling," Iris said.

"We asked his friends and teachers about everything. It all checks out - he was fine. It's just too out of character for him to simply disappear."

Most of the nearly 100 volunteers who've been searching for Robert since Tuesday night agree, but they are trying hard not to imagine a worst-case scenario.

"Hopefully he's just been in a (bicycle) accident in the ravine somewhere, or maybe he hit his head and has amnesia," said Janet Hardy, a family friend who was dispatching searchers to different areas of the river valley yesterday.

They searched the Mill Creek ravine Tuesday, but to no avail. Yesterday, the Edmonton Police Air-1 chopper searched it again - with the same result.

"We haven't had a single tip," Hardy said.

Iris called Robert "a quiet kid, not a partier." A gifted mathematician who has won awards in Scotland, Japan and China, he's attended the University of Toronto since 2003.

He's the kind of guy who's memorized the value of pi ( the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) to 100 decimal points.

Robert's longtime friend Eric Ong, also 20, is among dozens of Old Scona grads searching for their former classmate.

'STILL IN SHOCK'

"I think I'm still in shock," Ong said.

"I searched along the ravine near Scona Road and the Muttart Conservatory Tuesday night ... I always thought Edmonton was a safe place."

Robert's girlfriend - a U of T classmate named Lucy - is expected to join the search later this week.

She's currently in Italy, but is arranging for a flight from Rome to Edmonton.

Edmonton Police spokesman Dean Parthenis said missing persons detectives are expected to pick up the case when they return from vacation next week.

"But we have no evidence to indicate foul play," he said. "Public help in this type of case is paramount (to helping solve it)."

The investigation is currently being handled by south-side cops and vice Det. Ed Willis.

Anyone wishing to help in the search is asked to visit the new website at grad.econ.ubc.ca/cpbl/robert/

[Sher]

Description of Robert:
ROBERT:
20 yrs old
height: 6'1”
weight: slim (~150 lbs)
short brown hair
hazel eyes

CLOTHING:
short-sleeved button-down shirt
brown leather shoes
blue MEC fleece jacket
blue MEC backpack with purple trim
blue helmet

BICYCLE:
blue Raleigh “Cliffhanger” with road tires
plastic fenders
oval headlight
short frame
tall seat

LAST SEEN: Sunday 13 Aug at 10:30 p.m. heading to Folk Festival on bike, probably through the Mill Creek Ravine and Cloverdale

[Sher]

BELOW IS A PHOTO OF THE TYPE OF BIKE ROBERT WAS TRAVELLING ON




BELOW IS THE TYPE OF CELL PHONE ROBERT HAD ON HIM

[Sher]

UPDATED DESCRIPTION


ROBERT:
20 yrs old
height: 6'1”
weight: slim (140-155 lbs)
short brown hair
hazel eyes
soft spoken
(the previously described faint British accent is not consistant in casual conversation.)

CLOTHING:
short-sleeved button-down shirt (Ben Sherman brand)
blue jeans (Blend brand)
brown leather shoes
grey-blue MEC fleece jacket
blue MEC backpack with purple trim
blue bike helmet (Louis Garneau)
Watch similar to Casio AW43-7E1V, metalic Gray



More photos of Robert

BICYCLE:
medium-blue Raleigh “Cliffhanger”, no suspension
road tires similar to Kenda K154
plastic fenders
headlight (Cateye HL500, dark purple case, 2 "C" batteries)
red taillight (Cateye)
short frame
extra high seat (long seat post)
U-lock holder (but no lock)


CELLPHONE:
Motorola V180 handset
Case: one thick white low ankle sock with light brown writing, ribbing and toes


POSSIBLE OTHER ITEMS:
The mechanical pencil and notebook were found at home so they were not with Robert when he left.

[Sher]

[Sher]

Math whiz's disappearance bewilders loved ones
Family and friends struggle to find out what happened to bright student 'at his happiest'
KATHERINE HARDING AND SUZANNE MA

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

EDMONTON AND TORONTO — It's been more than a week since a young math genius vanished in Edmonton, but the 20-year-old man's family and friends, and even concerned strangers, have no plans to scale back efforts to find him or clues that could solve the mystery of his disappearance.

“I don't know him, but I'm a dad and I've got a son. If he went missing, I'd want as many people as possible out looking for him,” said Rick Ferguson, as the 61-year-old flower-shop owner clawed through thick brush close to Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River Monday. “From all I've heard and read, it sounds like it is out of character for someone like him to just go missing.”

Robert Barrington Leigh, 20, who is considered one of the country's top mathematical minds, hasn't been seen since Aug. 13, when he told his parents he was bicycling to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival to meet friends around 10:30 p.m.

The Edmonton Police Service conducted an extensive ground, air and water search of the area last week, but called it off Friday night after no sign of the University of Toronto math student turned up.


Robert Barrington Leigh, 20, is seen wearing the shirt he wore the night he went missing.


Although the police are no longer searching, his family hasn't stopped looking and has helped arrange search parties every day since he vanished.

At the Barrington Leigh family home, multiple phone lines have been set up, along with a website (www.Findrobert.ca), featuring photos, a timeline of events leading to his disappearance and daily updates on the search.

His family has also posted a $5,000 reward for any information that helps find him.

Mr. Barrington Leigh's family has described him as a brilliant but shy young man who was “at his happiest” before he disappeared. He was ready to start his fourth year at the University of Toronto, and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend last month.

He prepared a mushroom Parmesan risotto for his family the night he disappeared.

“He hadn't told me how much cooking he'd been doing [in Toronto],” his mother, Iris, said.

“It was excellent.”

Later that night, he waved goodbye to his mother, who was sitting on the couch in the family room watching television. “It was quite an ordinary day,” she said, her voice breaking. “I said ‘bye' and that was it.”

Ms. Barrington Leigh said the family is staying strong by focusing on finding her son, who is six feet tall, weighs 150 pounds, and was last seen wearing an olive-coloured fleece jacket, short-sleeved shirt, khaki shorts and brown shoes.

“Right now, we're all out there looking for him. Until we know something more concrete, then we will know what emotions we'll have to deal with,” she said.

Mr. Barrington Leigh's older siblings are also helping with the search. His 32-year-old brother, Chris, told an Edmonton newspaper on the weekend that while it is out of character for his younger brother to go missing, he's worried Robert may be on a self-imposed “math retreat” or hiding.

He suggested that his brother might be too afraid to come home because of all the effort people have made to find him since he disappeared.

Edward Bierstone, a mathematics professor at the University of Toronto, remembers how Robert was just a first-year student when he signed up for an advanced course for third-year mathematicians.

“He was the best student in the class,” Dr. Bierstone said. “I was very much impressed. He would do his work so well and he would always be smiling.”

He said he often saw the young man studying in the math commons with his girlfriend, Lucy Zhang.

Ms. Zhang, a 22-year-old mathematics student at the university, was in Italy completing a summer credit course when she heard that her boyfriend was missing. She cut her studies short and flew directly to Edmonton to help in the search.

“He's my best friend; I'm his best friend,” she said. “We've become very close and we talk about anything. It is so uncharacteristic of him to just disappear like this.”

Ms. Zhang still keeps a text message she received from Robert before he disappeared. It was sent at 11:34 p.m. Sunday, which was Monday morning in Italy when she received it: “Good morning. I'm out at the moment so I can't call. Good luck on your mid-term.”

Edmonton police have confirmed that the text message was picked up by a cellphone tower in the city's river valley, close to where the folk festival was being held, on the night he disappeared.

Police spokeswoman Lisa Lammi said that while there is no information so far to indicate foul play, the officer assigned to the case has been working tirelessly to find him, and has received tips from Lake Louise, Banff and Toronto.

Ms. Lammi said the police ground search was called off because not a single clue turned up during a thorough sweep of the area where he was last believed to have visited.

“And until we have information leading us into another direction, we really have no place to turn,” she said.

[Sher]

Choking backing emotion, the father and brother of an Edmonton math whiz missing for nine days confirmed Tuesday that police had found the 20-year-old's body.


CTV.ca News Staff

The body of Robert Barrington Leigh was found Tuesday in the North Saskatchewan River.

"I know a lot of people have been following this, and pouring their hearts into it, and we just wanted to share the news immediately," said Robert Barrington Leigh's brother, Chris.

Police said the body was found at approximately 11:03 a.m. local time Tuesday with identification belonging to Robert Barrington Leigh.

The 20-year-old University of Toronto student was visiting family when he disappeared.

He was last seen pedaling away from his parents' 85th Street home on his bike in Edmonton on Sunday Aug. 13.

Deborah Shiry of CTV News Edmonton said that as her camera crew arrived at the riverfront near 99 Avenue and 92 Street there was tour boat in front of the body.

The body was discovered by workers on a City of Edmonton water and sanitation jet boat.

Police spokesperson Lisa Lammi said no foul play is suspected, and that it was hoped dental records would provide a positive identification.

In a news release, police said the body was taken to the Medical Examiner's office and that an autopsy has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Friends and family said Leigh was very happy and never spoke of suicide or having depression. Leigh's father, John, did not want to speculate on how his son's death occurred.

"Nobody knows anything more than that we've found the body, so it's not a question that we know what's behind the file, that's still an open investigation,'' he said.

He also thanked the public for their support.

"I just have to hope that every community, when something like this happens, has the benefit from support at this level that we've had,'' he said choking back tears.

Since last Tuesday, more than 100 volunteers collectively spent more than 2,500 hours searching the river valley, augmenting an extensive land and water search by police.

[Lukenum]

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