If he's alive, Charles Horvath -- the young Englishman who vanished without a trace in Kelowna in 1989 -- would have had his 55th birthday last month.
The milestone prompted his haunted mom, Denise Horvath of England, to have a new, age-progression sketch of Charles done.
It's essentially a last ditch hope of finally getting some answers in this baffling case that has long gone cold.
"This may well be my final search for Charles," said Denise, who is now 73 and in failing health and unable to travel to Canada.
Denise has previously been to Kelowna 15 times, searching for clues and keeping Charles' disappearance in the news in hopes of a breakthrough.
"Searching for Charles has become my full-time job over the past 34 years," said Denise.
"I want to do everything I can while I'm still here."
What that means is a very life-like photo representation of what Charles would likely look like now, if he's still alive, a GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/
The new age-progression image eerily depicts a man who may well have been murdered over three decades ago.
Charles at 55 looks like a man who aged well based on the many photos that have circulated in the media of Charles when he went missing at 20.
Obviously, he looks older and he's balding, but there are the same eyes and features that make Charles Charles.
Recover Agency commissioned UK-based forensic artist Tim Widden to do the new, age-progression image.
"Charles had an incredible likeness to his father when he was in his 20s," said Widden.
"So, I aimed to base the angle and expression of Charles' age progression to that, as I feel they would have aged similarly. To produce the age progression, I selected a photo of Charles, upscaled it using AI (artificial intelligence), then manually changed the proportions of his face in PhotoShop to represent his current age. I then used donor images to add older skin textures and features."
The resulting photo-like sketch is what's been distributed to media and used in updated electronic posters for GoFundMe and Facebook.
In fact, it was on July 5 that Recover Agency launched the GoFundMe on behalf of Denise in order to pay for the new, age-progression image and cover the expenses of a private investigator to travel to Kelowna to do some more digging.
The modest goal of $2,500 was met to cover those costs.
Recover Agency is offering its services to Denise for free.
Denise is no longer after vengeance or justice.
She just wants Charles' remains to bury with family in England.
To this day, Denise believes one of the strongest leads in the case is also one of the first.
When Charles was in Kelowna, he was staying at the Tiny Town Campground, which is now long gone, and is currently the construction site of a condominium development beside Gyro Beach.
A gang of bikers from the US stopped at Tiny Town to stay and party before heading to the Falkland Stampede.
A tip at the time suspected a polite, young Englishman was killed by a biker trying to earn a gang patch.
Charles was backpacking across Canada when he arrived in Kelowna in May 1989.
He found temporary digs at Tiny Town and landed a job at Flintstone's, the long-defunct amusement park that was at Highway 97 and McCurdy Road.
Charles last contacted his mom, via fax, on May 11, 1989.
The last time he was ever seen was on May 26, 1989 at Royal Bank Orchard Park cashing a paycheque from Flintstone's.
He was officially reported missing by his mom at the end of May.
The case has baffled police, Kelowna and the world since because there's no closure.
It's rare that a case goes unsolved for 34 years without the person being found dead or alive.
While it's considered a cold case, the Kelowna RCMP keeps the file number 1989-21784 open.
Tips can be submitted to the RCMP at 250-762-3300 or anonymously at Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
