Nearly three decades after he was last seen, all Herbert Gross’s family has left is old newspaper clippings detailing his disappearance and the brief search for his remains.
Sixty-nine-year-old Gross went missing on May 3rd, 1996, from his home at the Portage Village Inn. It was only years later that his daughter, Heather, learned what police had found there.
“They gave me a list of everything, and on it — they never told us this, that they found blood in his apartment,” says Heather. “They found bloodstains on the bed, I think.”
Police at the time had few leads but suspected foul play. Heather was told someone had seen two men taking Herbert’s belongings out of his apartment. They were later found in a garbage bin behind 295 Portage Ave.
Police believed his remains may have been disposed of and spent several days in June 1996 searching the Summit Road Landfill, according to news coverage at the time. Nothing was found, and that landfill has since been closed.
No one was ever arrested in Herbert’s disappearance, and Heather was never told of any potential suspects. She says her attempts to get police to keep investigating in the years following never went anywhere.
“May as well have just took my whole heart,” says Heather.
Now, as the province wraps up the search at Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of two murdered Indigenous women, and promises to search the Brady Road Landfill for a third, the family says it opens old wounds.
Ron Gross, Herbert’s nephew, can’t help but wonder why their search was given up.
“Every day you see it in the papers. I’m glad they got the coverage, but every day the scab keeps getting ripped off, ripped off, ripped off,” says Ron.
Winnipeg police declined to be interviewed for this story.
Heather and Ron know they may never find Herbert’s remains, but are hoping they might someday see accountability for an investigation they believe should have been more thorough.
“At least say, ‘You know what, we screwed up. We didn’t do what we should have done at the time,’” says Ron. “That may close the door.”