Cold case: How did Charles Horvath vanish 32 years ago?

Thirty-two years ago this week, Charles Horvath cashed a cheque at the Royal Bank at Orchard Park in Kelowna and then was never seen again.

It's a disappearance that's haunted his mother, Denise Allan, and the community, for more than three decades.

How can someone completely and utterly vanish without a trace?

Was he murdered?

And, if so, how and why was he killed and where is his body?

These are questions Denise, and Kelowna, will likely never get answers to.

But that doesn't stop anyone from trying.

The Kelowna RCMP case is still open if someone comes forward with information at 1-800-222-8477 or CrimeStoppers.net.

While Denise last year relented to getting a death certificate for Charles, she yearns to find his remains and bury him with other family members in a cemetery in Cambridge, England and maintains a Search for Charles KJ Horvath-Allan Foundation page on Facebook.

To coincide with the 32nd anniversary of Charles' disappearance, Kirsty Bennett, a criminology lecturer from Leeds School of Social Sciences in England, spent time with Denise to generate a Cold Case Unit article that's been posted online.

Bennett, whose area of expertise is cold case homicides, missing persons and no-body murders, outlined the case and urged anyone with any information to contact CrimeStoppers.

"I know that someone murdered Charles (while he was in Kelowna in 1989)," Denise said the last time she was in the city in September 2018 for a news conference at Kelowna RCMP headquarters.

"His remains are out there somewhere. I know there are people out there in Kelowna who know what happened to Charles and are afraid to come forward. I'm appealing to them personally."

Denise is no longer after vengeance or justice.

She simply wants some sort of closure in finding her son's remains.

"I just seek answers," she said.

This story starts with Charles, a 20-year-old naive dreamer who thinks he's worldly, leaving his home in England to backpack across Canada.

He arrives in Kelowna in May 1989, sets up temporary digs at Tiny Town Campground (which is now a parking lot) beside Gyro Beach and lands a job at the long-gone Flintstone's theme park.

Charles last contacted his mom May 11, 1989, via fax.

It was a paycheque from Flintstone's that Charles was cashing when he was last seen.

"His belongings, camping tools and personal property was located at Tiny Town, which is a strong indication to our members that Charles' disappearance was suspicious in nature," said Const. Lesley Smith at the September 2019 news conference.

To this day, Allan believes one of the strongest leads in the case as also one of the first.

While Charles was staying at Tiny Town, a gang of bikers from the US stopped at the campground on its way to a party at the Falkland Stampede.

A tip later alluded to a polite Englishman being killed by a biker trying to earn a gang patch.

Nothing came of that information, so for years Denise held out hope Charles was alive somewhere.

If you live in Kelowna, or have lived in Kelowna at any point over the past 32 years, you've likely repeatedly heard of the case of the young English lad who disappeared into thin air.

It was a big missing persons story in 1989 that went across Canada and Britain.

There have also been hundreds of radio, TV, newspaper and online stories internationally as the years march by and the case goes unsolved.

I've done many stories myself, starting as a reporter at Kelowna radio station CKOV in August 1989 when Charles was declared missing through Denise's visits over the years to keep Charles' name in the forefront while I worked at the Kelowna Daily Courier and now online at with NowMedia Group on the grim 32nd anniversary of his disappearance