Katharina Buczek
“JoAnne was the one that kept Lisa in the media’s attention because she didn’t want anybody to forget her. It’s just important for our family to have some kind of closure,” Lisa’s aunt, Carol Frank, said.
“My sister passed away on June 21, 2017, and she never got to find her only daughter.”
Following JoAnne’s passing, the Walk of Love and Hope for Lisa was reinstated. From then on, though, this event also simultaneously honored JoAnne’s memory and the love of her daughter.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog took steps to further keep Lisa’s memory alive as well. In 2022, he declared that June 28 would be “Justice for Lisa Marie Young Day.”
Similarly, June 30 was declared “Lights on for Lisa Day,” urging residents to leave their porch lights and honor the missing 21-year-old.
“I am a parent and grandparent, and I cannot begin to imagine what it must have been like for Lisa’s family when she went missing, and after all these years, no justice, no knowledge, no closure,” Mayor Krog said on June 26, 2022, during the annual Walk of Love and Hope for Lisa.
“There is no greater love, I believe, than the love that exists between a parent and a child… and I cannot begin to imagine all of those years when [Lisa’s] mother survived and lived to think about her daughter and what may have happened to her.”
Last year, an anonymous donor also came forward and offered a $50,000 USD reward to anyone who can lead investigators to Lisa’s remains.
Carol did speak with the donor and decided that the reward money would only be for the location of the 21-year-old’s remains– not just information.
“It’s sad we have to come to this, you know, to offer money. But if it helps in the end, then that’s all we want, to bring Lisa home,” Carol told Vancouver Island Free Daily.
“It’s always been our main goal over all the years, even before justice is done… to bring Lisa home, give her a proper burial. Somebody just threw her away like trash, and she wasn’t.”
