Discovery of body doesn’t end mystery

Search for missing woman ends in tragedy The discovery of Hilda Raby’s car Sunday followed by the discovery of her body in waist-high water off Highway 91, near No. 9 Road in East Richmond, has resulted in as many questions as answers.

Police found Raby’s red four-door sedan Sunday after receiving a tip from a local property owner, but the missing 84-year-old woman was initially nowhere to be found. It was apparent that the front end of the sedan had become stuck in some bark mulch at the end of an access road, surrounded by cranberry and farming fields.

“There’s nothing unusual in the car that could be determined at this point,” Richmond RCMP Const. Peter Thiessen said. “Things appear to be relatively normal inside the car and out.”

Police performed an extensive search of the surrounding area, but came up empty on Sunday, ending their search at nightfall.

On Monday, some officers stumbled upon the remains of a woman’s body in a murky ditch just a few metres from the road and among some large mounds of dirt and mud. The body, which was later confirmed to be Raby based on jewelry and a purse found in her possession, was found several hundred metres from where Raby’s car became stuck.

“They saw what they thought initially was an old rag or a tree stump or something in the water and they looked a little closer, they pulled some of it out of the water and determined it was a body,” Thiessen said.

Police now will have the difficult task of trying to determine how Raby wound up in an isolated and poorly lit part of Richmond.

Perhaps she simply became disoriented, lost her way, and then when her car became stuck she searched for help?

Raby’s daughter Anita Larden said she’s now wondering whether her mother may have suffered a mini-stroke and as a result perhaps become confused.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the family had still not heard back from the coroner’s office, which was scheduled to perform an autopsy on Raby.

Larden said the car’s doors were all locked and Raby’s photo album, which had been on the floor of the car, was found in the trunk.

“Had there not been water there, she might have made it to the highway,” Larden said, speculating that her mother was walking toward the lights of the highway in order to get help.

On the night of Raby’s disappearance, she had gone out to play bingo with her adult niece. After several hours of playing at a Vancouver bingo hall, they called it quits and made their way home.

What police do know is that Raby dropped off her niece near 49th and Fraser Street around 11 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 20.

The location where Raby’s car was found is well away from a logical path between her own home on Glenallen Drive, near Garden City and Francis roads, and the home of her niece.

“At this point, everything’s being looked at,” Thiessen said of the investigation.

Funeral arrangements had not yet been made by Wednesday afternoon because an autopsy had not yet been completed on Raby’s body.

Larden said the family hopes to hold the funeral early next week at the Richmond Funeral Home.