June 27, 1990 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 60 pages 25¢

WV firefight

FRIENDS AND FAMILY
GROW CONCERNED
ABOUT WELL-BEING OF
MISSING MAN

FRIENDS AND family of 2 popular 45-year-old West
Vancouver firefighter who disappeared June 14 are becom-
ing increasingty concerned about the missing man’s con-

tinued well-being.

West Vancouver Fire Depart-
ment (WVFD) firefighter Rex
Neff, a Richmond resident,
finished his last shift June 13 at 8
He had breakfast with a
in the afternoon he
65-year-old mother,
near the

a.m.
friend and
visited his
Rose, in Huntingdon,
Sumas border crossing.

Neff had indicated that he was

FIREFIGHTER Rex Neff

.- missing since June £4.

going to drive to Kelowna to par-
ticipate in a fire department
slow-pitch league baseball tour-
nament. But the event was
cancelled due to high water in the
Okanagan.

Neff's wife Karen said her hus-
band had been under a Sot of
stress lately, but she claimed it
was out of character for him to
simply disappear.

She dectined to elaborate on the
nature of his problems.

“It's (the disappearance) been
hard on us,*’ she said. ‘‘I work a
lot to cope.”"

Karen, her son, Ryan, 17, and
18-year-old daughter, Nicole, have
heard nothing about where Neff
might be.

Richmond RCMP investigators
have no leads.

Nelf was last seen in the vicinity
of the Huntingdon-Sunias border
crossing. But a cheek at Sumas

INSIDE: .

NORTH SHORE SPORTS: 17_

showed that Neff has not crossed
the border in his grey VW Rabbit
(licence no. PPT 839).

Posters identifying the missing
man have been distributed to
every fire hall in the province.
Washington State authorities have
also been alerted.

Said Rot Davidson, a co-
worker at the fire department and
a friend of Neff’s for the past 27
years, ‘“‘li’s a big haystack out
there. We're doing just about
everything we can think of to find
him, The main thing is we're try-
ing to locate that car.”’

Davidson last saw Neff June 12.

““We've got a bunch of people
looking and we’ve got a bunch of
traps, some things set up. If he
just trips one of them, we'll have
an idea of where he is. He
definitely needs some help. We're
sort of a brotherhood here and we
took after our own,”* he said.

Davidson said Neff was having

family problems and had been
depressed.
“He had some pretty heavy

pressures on him. Sometimes you
get (00 many pressures and you
just’ crack, the mind just can’t
take it. They were just normal-
type pressures: kids and school,
money, wife, mortgage,”’ he said,
adding, ‘‘When everything hits at
once you sort of have to get away
and that’s how we're treating it.’’

But Neff hasn’t followed the
pattern of simply getting away
from it all. Davidson said none of
his baaking accounts have been
tapped for funds.

WYVFD Capt. Barry Campbell
said Neff is “one of the top three
guys’’ in the fire department,

**He had some emotional prob-
lems. (But) the thing about it —
no matter where you go in the
province — you mention Rex’s
name and people know him. He's
quite active in baseball, curling,
hockey. He doesn’t cause any
waves or siep on any toes,”
Camphell said.

ae ee

ENJOYING SATURDAY ’'S Foikfest parade from their vantage point on an antique fire truck are these
beauty contest winners. The parade, which processed up Lonsdale Avenue, was only one of many
Folkfest activities that took place over the weekend. Other highlights were cultural performances at the
North Vancouver Centennial Thestre and a family fair at Mahon Park.

COMPLETE WEEK’S TV LISTING: 36