This past Sunday, three non-verbal autistic children go missing.
They are found within just a few hours.
The police deal with missing persons every day of the week and they tell us this is what usually happens.
The missing are found and normally found quickly.
But not 11-year-old Parker, a non-verbal autistic boy.
The search continues, the answers don’t come easy, the answers don’t come at all, the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit together.
In fact, they are still looking for the pieces.
Since last Thursday there is one question people hear within themselves and ask each other.
Where is he? Where could that boy possibly be? Parker can’t just disappear.
The question doesn’t go away and is asked just as often now as it was days ago.
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You see, as of press time, despite all the effort, despite all the ground covered, all the places searched, all the camera footage examined, all the tips from the public investigated, they have no new information since last Thursday when young Parker went missing.
Usually something comes up. Often someone spots the missing person. Or there are clues, there are leads, there are dots being connected.
Not this time. Not yet.
And those trying to find Parker feel it.
Parker, 11, went missing last Thursday afternoon and was last seen wearing grey shorts and black noise-cancelling headphones. He is also non-verbal.
“Every day we come up empty and it’s absolutely heartbreaking for us and beyond frustrating,” says Staff Sgt. Becky Spohr, the Incident Commander in this massive search for Parker.
“It’s like he simply vanished.”
Staff Sgt. Spohr is quick to add the commitment to the search remains strong “despite coming up empty at every turn.”
What drives those looking everywhere for Parker is a simple word. Hope. They hold on to hope.
Hope can be powerful.
“We just keep going. It is agonizing but our folks out there have an unwavering commitment to keep at it.
“We can speculate all day but the fact is we don’t know where Parker is. We just keep searching, we just keep doing everything we can in hopes of finding Parker or finding evidence or information suggesting a new path.
“It’s heartbreaking when you think about it. It’s real tough. You have to dig really deep to find that hope and keep the troops motivated and keep pushing them out there so we can try and find some peace for the family.”
A sign along 36th Avenue N.E. encourages Calgarians to search their property for missing 11-year-old Parker Wells on Sunday, July 19, 2026.
The staff sergeant has plenty of front-line experience, like answering the call in the Jasper wildfire.
There are plenty of people who know what they’re doing in this search, an overwhelming number of people helping in the search.
Folks can’t recall a bigger search within the city limits.
Hundreds of city police. Then there’s the RCMP, the city fire department, the railway cops checking along the train tracks, the bylaw officers and many others.
There are trained search and rescue people from Calgary and from throughout Alberta. They know what they’re doing.
A helicopter and drones in the air, boats in the water, underwater cameras, a robot searching sewer pipes, cadaver dogs.
Cops on foot, on horses, on bikes, on motorcycles, on quads.
The search area is equal to 1,250 Canadian football fields.
The Calgary police Command Post is still operating at Thorncliffe Elementary School in northwest Calgary on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Officials and hundreds of volunteers continue to search for Parker, an 11-year-old boy from Calgary, who has been missing since July 16, 2026, when he walked away from his day home.
At Thorncliffe School, the command post for this search to find Parker, Calgarians come up and ask a police officer how they can help.
He points them to the gathering of volunteers at the nearby community centre.
The cop tells them they’ll know the place by the number of cars.
A woman approaches showing video she’s taken with her phone.
She points out a pair of long pants she found in the woods. Parker was last seen with short pants.
She shows a house near where Parker was last sighted with some playground equipment in the back.
Maybe Parker was there? She asks.
The officer takes down the information, thanks her and she leaves, promising to look some more.
Volunteers gather at the Thorncliffe Greenview Community Association in northeast Calgary on Monday, July 20, 2026. Officials continue to search for Parker, an 11-year-old boy from Calgary, who has been missing since July 16, 2026, when he walked away from his dayhome.
Meanwhile, the search for Parker continues. If you are a praying kind of person, now is the time.
“We’re pulling out all the stops. We’re just trying to do everything to find Parker,” says Staff Sgt. Spohr.
The incident commander makes sure to mention the Disney music.
Parker likes Disney music and the police have played songs from The Lion King and Frozen from the loudspeakers of police vehicles as they go up and down the alleys and roadways hoping Parker will hear the songs he likes and come out.