In an effort to revive the nearly 12-year-old investigation into Emma Fillipoff’s disappearance, her family and police investigators say they are looking to bring a person of interest to the public.

Fillipoff, 26 at the time, had exhibited strange and out-of-character behavior in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. After learning that Fillipoff had been staying in a women’s shelter, her mother flew to Victoria from Ontario.

However, when Shelley Fillipoff arrived on the evening of November 28, 2012, staff at the Sandy Merriman House women’s shelter said Fillipoff had not claimed her bed that evening. She was declared a missing person soon after, and despite a number of leads over the years, she has yet to be found.

Now, the group continuing to search for her — including her mother, Victoria Police Department investigators, forensic consultants, filmmakers and criminologists — say they are looking for an unsolved lead: a man from Vancouver’s Gastown who was caught on CCTV footage claiming is Fillipoff’s Lover.

According to a press release, on May 27, 2014, an agitated man in a green T-shirt with a pronounced limp and tattooed arms entered a clothing boutique in downtown Vancouver holding a crumpled missing person poster with Emma. The man claimed Emma was not missing and referred to her as his girlfriend, but left the store before the police could arrive.

“This investigation only needs one person with the right information to come forward. If you are the person known as ‘Green Shirt Guy’, if you know who he is, or if you have any other information related to Emma’s case, please contact the Victoria Police Department or report anonymously through Crime Stoppers,” said Det./Const. Bob Illes of the Victoria Police Department in the release.

As part of an initiative to garner public interest, her mother worked with forensic artist Hew Morrison to create a composite of the man based on grainy surveillance footage. They also redesigned helpfindemmafillipoff.ca website, with a revised timeline including the most recent search initiatives and a news archive covering all previous articles related to Emma’s case.

“I believe that revisiting the story of the man in the green shirt will spark renewed interest in my daughter’s case. I have long felt that this man could be a valuable source of information in Emma’s disappearance,” her mother said in the statement.

A six-hour docu-series called Barefoot in the Night: The Search for Emma Fillipoff is still in production, with future filming and interview dates planned for early 2025, though no release date has been set yet.

With files from Hollie Ferguson