The mother of a missing Ste. Anne Man is imploring the public to search their minds for recent memories of her son.

Julie Hawkins says she last saw her 47-year-old son, Peter, take a cab from their home in the RM of Ste. Anne on the afternoon of May 29, exactly two months ago. At the time, she thought little of the event as her son frequently left for Winnipeg.

“That’s where we thought he would be and we thought he would contact us… but then he didn’t contact us and we got worried,” she shares.

Peters was last seen near Betula Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park.Christopher Peter Hawkins or “Peter”, as he preferred to be called, had been living with Hawkins and her husband for the past few years, helping out around the house. She describes him as a shy individual who enjoys sports and music. He did not, however, have a proclivity towards the outdoors. To Hawkins, the fact that he was last seen near Betula Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park is the most troubling piece of the puzzle.

“He wouldn’t go out into the wilderness. That is what concerns me,” she says. "And he did not leave the house with any kind of camping equipment, nothing that would give us any reason to believe he was going into the wild, that’s for sure.”

The region was not totally unknown to Peter though and Hawkins says the family did frequent the park many years ago.

“When he was young, we would go on fishing trips to the Whiteshell. He loved Betula Lake, Jessica Lake, White Lake, Rainbow Falls; he really enjoyed those trips. I’m thinking maybe that’s why he chose to go there.”

Still, she says, the decision to visit their old stomping grounds did seem “uncharacteristic”.

“I don’t know what was going on inside of his head, but I imagine he had a need to get away, like he does when he goes to Winnipeg. Why he chose the park, I don’t know.”

With trace amounts of regret, Hawkins recalls the last moment she had with Peter, the same afternoon that he disappeared.

“The last we spoke, I was distracted because I was working at home during this pandemic,” she offers, “so I didn’t really have a real conservation with him before he left. I certainly wish I would have now.”

Hawkins is determined that this specific interaction will not be the final one she has with her son.

“I’m asking anybody who has seen him or talked to him or had contact with him to please, please let the RCMP know so they can find him. We love him and really miss him.”