Marissa Shephard, a 20-year-old Moncton, New Brunswick woman being sought for first-degree murder since December, has gone off the radar. Her father suggests she may be dead, the RCMP says she "could be anywhere," and an expert says it's possible she has left the province entirely.So far, the police have been tight-lipped about the exact details of the case, but what we know goes as follows: on December 17, Moncton police discovered the body of an 18-year-old man inside the remains of a burned-out building. Shortly after, police arrested Devin Morningstar and charged him with first-degree murder and arson. Then, about ten days later, the RCMP issued an arrest warrant for Shephard and Tyler Noel, also on charges of first-degree murder and arson. Noel was apprehended last weekend in Petitcodiac, New Brunswick, 30 minutes west of Moncton, but Shephard still remains at large.The cause of death for the victim, Baylee Wylie, has not yet been released, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police previously described the murder as "extremely violent." While his relationship with Shephard and Noel is unclear, VICE's search through both of the suspects' Facebook pages found that both Shephard and Noel were friends with Wylie through the social network. Attempts to reach out to mutual friends went without reply.RCMP Constable Jullie Rogers-Marsh told VICE that the arrest warrant and all current information about Shephard has been relayed across the country, but that they've had no sign of her as of yet. The police force considers Shephard a danger to public safety and are asking for the public's help in locating her."At this point, we're relying a lot on the public's assistance," she said. "The reality is that we don't know where she is. We've received some tips and followed up on them with negative results, so she really could be anywhere."In an interview with Global News yesterday, Shephard's father David Shephard said that he fears his daughter may be dead and that he has not seen her since December 12, adding it's behavior he describes as "totally uncharacteristic."The most recent follows on a Twitter account opened three years ago under the name "Marissa Shephard" include the New Brunswick and national RCMP accounts, among a very short list of celebrities and friends. It's unclear the exact date in which the accounts were followed.According to Wade Knapp, associate professor at the University of Toronto and a now-retired 35-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service, similar cases to Shephard's disappearance are not entirely uncommon.Knapp points to the 1983 murder of nine-year-old Sharin' Morningstar Keenan as a case that has gone unsolved to date. The main suspect, a Toronto man by the name of Dennis Melvyn Howe, has evaded authorities for over three decades and is speculated to have died at this point.While Knapp says that it's plausible she could have crossed borders, either into another province or into the United States, he adds that it could just be that the police are withholding info in hopes of catching Shephard off guard."There's a potential for holdback information as well in regards to these types of things," he said. "It's a balance between the obtaining of assistance from the public through the media outlets and whatnot, and compromising the investigation or jeopardizing court proceedings down the road."When asked whether Shephard could have crossed into the US before the arrest warrant was issued, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was not immediately available for comment.Follow Jake Kivanc on Twitter.
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