Posted with permission. Courtesy The Province
A special report on BC’s missing children. Brianne is featured in this article (begins at the end of page 1).
These are PDF files, which means you may need to install Adobe Reader (free download).
Gone, without a trace – Province – Page 1
Gone, without a trace – Province – Page 2
Gone, without a trace – Province – Page 3
Thank you to Sandra and Barb (PNG News Research Library).
Posted with permission. Courtesy The Province
The Province
Sun Sep 10 2000
Page: A17
Section: News
Byline: Wendy McLellan and Chris Montgomery
Source: The Province
Brianne Wolgram left her house in jeans and a white T-shirt as if she were heading out for a Saturday night with friends.
Two years later, the Revelstoke teenager is still not home, and her family is desperate to find her.
“There has been absolutely nothing for two years,” said her mom, Sheryl Wolgram, who works as a house cleaner to stop herself from thinking too much.
“We still keep going over it,” she says, “wondering what could have happened.
“I don’t think she did this deliberately. We know our daughter.”
On Sept. 5, 1998, Brianne, who was then 19, spent the day working at the local Super Save gas station.
She was tired that day — she had worked a night shift at McDonald’s the day before, then stayed out late with her girlfriends.
Some of the staff at the gas station told police Brianne was upset during her shift and seemed quieter than usual, and at some point in the afternoon, Brianne broke down in tears.
“She had a little cry and then she got over it,” Sheryl said. “They told her she could go home, but she wanted to keep working.”
When Brianne got home from work at 7 p.m. that evening, she looked tired and told her mom she was going to take a nap.
The family had been invited to a barbecue, but Brianne decided to stay home.
At 9 p.m., Brianne called her best friend, Kristi Cain. Brianne said she would pick up Cain when Cain finished work at 11:15 p.m., and then they could hang out with their friends for a while.
At 11:20, Cain called Brianne’s house to find out why her friend was late. Brianne wasn’t home.
“She’s my best friend. If she wasn’t going to make it to pick me up, she would have called,” said Cain.
Brianne never called Cain and she has not been seen since that Saturday night. Some witnesses said Brianne was outside the local 7-Eleven talking to three girls before 11:30 p.m.
One man said he followed Brianne’s car on the way out of town. He said there were three passengers inside.
Four days later, Brianne’s black 1989 Acura Integra was found abandoned 30 kilometres south of town on a narrow, twisting gravel logging road. The car had hit a tree on a right-angle bend in the road and suffered minor damage.
Inside the glove compartment, police found Brianne’s driver’s licence, bank card and more than $200 cash.
Family, friends and search and rescue teams spent weeks scouring the area. Tracking dogs followed Brianne’s scent at the car, but the trail vanished three metres up the road.
A hunter told police he saw a teenage girl in shorts walking on the road about 8 a.m. Sunday. The three girls who were last seen with Brianne have never come forward.
Brianne’s mom worries that the police aren’t doing enough to find her daughter. Some people have suggested Brianne may have run away or killed herself, but Wolgram says her daughter had her own car and bank account — she didn’t have to run away. And Brianne was not suicidal.
Brianne was working two jobs to save money to go to college to train as a pharmacist’s assistant.
She was close to her two older brothers and her mom and dad, and had lived in Revelstoke her whole life. Only a few months before she disappeared, Brianne had gone with her older brother to buy her first car.
None of her things was missing from the house. Her toothbrush was in the bathroom. Her bank account was untouched.
“It was just like she’d gone out for the night and she’d be back later. She was supposed to work the next day,” said Wolgram, 50.
“You’d think, after two years, something would have been found. I can’t even believe she was up on that road — there’s nothing out there.”
Brianne’s friends started a blue- ribbon campaign to raise money for the search and a reward.
There is now a $20,000 reward for information on Brianne or the three girls last seen with her at the 7-Eleven.
Last year, on the anniversary of Brianne’s disappearance, her family and friends drove up the logging road and tied blue ribbons to trees near where her car was found. This year, they plan to do it again.
“I just seems like yesterday. Every day, I keep praying she’ll just walk in the door, then other times I try to steel myself to never see her again,” Wolgram said.
“I don’t know if she’s alive. I hope she’s OK.
“I’ve started to pack some of her things away, but they are all ready to be put back again.”
Cain said her friend would never leave her family this way.
“It just doesn’t add up,” said Cain, 21.
“Nothing makes sense. If something was going on, she would have told me.”
The two girls have been friends since Grade 3, best friends since high school. They talked on the phone every day.
“I hope she’s alive — I’ll never give up hope,” said Cain.
Anyone with information on this case can call the toll-free tip line: 1-800-661-6160.
Profile of Brianne Wolgram.
Illustration:
• Color Photo: Angela Dingsdale, for The Province / Sheryl Wolgram gazes at a photograph of her daughter Brianne, who disappeared from the Revelstoke area on the night of Sept. 5, 1998. There is now a $20,000 reward for information on Brianne.
• Color Photo: (Article on Brianne Wolgram disappearance)
Edition: Final
Story Type: Profile
Length: 872 words
Idnumber: 200009100140
Thank you to Sandra and Barb (PNG News Research Library).
Posted with permission. Courtesy The Province
Correction in this article: The date Brianne disappeared is September 5, 1998 (article states date as September 7, 1998)
The Province
Thu Apr 1 1999
Page: A14
Section: News
Byline: Keith Fraser, Staff Reporter
Source: The Province
A Revelstoke dad is hoping a new poster depicting his missing daughter will help locate the young woman.
Cliff Wolgram was in the Lower Mainland this week, distributing copies of the poster to churches and to some news media.
In addition to a picture of his 20-year-old daughter, the poster has three composite sketches of young women believed to have been with Brianne Wolgram when she was last seen. Witnesses saw Wolgram with the three girls as they left a Revelstoke 7-Eleven store last Sept. 7 at about 11:30 p.m.
Wolgram is hoping the sketches of the girls will trigger someone’s memory.
“They’re not suspects. They might be able to take the story a little further. They’ll have a little more information than we have. It’s been seven months and we haven’t had anything pop up.”
Even though there have been no new clues, Wolgram remains hopeful his daughter will be found. “We feel Brianne is still around. We don’t know where.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Revelstoke RCMP at (250) 837-5255 or the Missing Children Society of Canada, at toll-free 1-800-661-6160.
Illustration:
• Cartoon: Sketches of a woman seen with Brianne.
• Cartoon: Sketches of a woman seen with Brianne.
Thank you to Sandra and Barb (PNG News Research Library).
Posted with permission. Courtesy The Province
Correction in this article: The date Brianne disappeared is September 5, 1998 (article states date as September 7, 1998)
The Province
Thu May 25 2000
Page: A9
Section: News
Byline: Salim Jiwa, Staff Reporter
Source: The Province
Sheryl Wolgram has religiously checked her missing daughter’s bedroom every morning for the past 20 months, hoping that by some miracle she will be there.
“I still check every morning. The room is pretty well the way she left it when she disappeared,” said her mother yesterday after the Missing Children Society of Canada announced that it’s offering a $20,000 reward to aid the search for Revelstoke’s Brianne Wolgram.
Wolgram’s parents, Sheryl and Cliff, have been at their wits’ end since Sept. 7, 1998 when the 19-year-old went missing.
She was last last seen leaving the 7-Eleven store in Revelstoke in the company of three females — none of whom has come forward to help in the search for Wolgram. Their identities remain unknown.
The missing children’s society said it will pay a $10,000 reward to anyone who can identify any or all of the girls who were with Wolgram that night.
The society said it considers the three girl companions to be “a key to the case.”
Why the three have not come forward is a mystery.
“I have gone through a thousand scenarios as to why they have not come forward,” said Sheryl Wolgram.
Another $10,000 reward is being offered to anyone who can provide information on Wolgram’s whereabouts.
The society is making the offer as part of National Missing Children’s Day, which is being marked today.
Each year in Canada, 60,000 children are reported missing — most either runaways or victims of parental abductions.
Revelstoke Mounties said they received one report from a hunter who said he saw Wolgram walking along an isolated logging road about a day before she was reported missing.
The man described her clothing, something that has yet to be made public.
The black 1989 Acura Integra which Wolgram had bought four months before she went missing was later found abandoned on a forestry road.
Wolgram had lived with her parents in Revelstoke and worked part-time at a McDonald’s restaurant and full-time at a gas station.
She had many good friends who police say are helping with the investigation.
Anyone with information about Wolgram or the three mystery women is asked to call this tip line: 1-800-661-6160.
Illustration:
• Photo: Companion 1
• Color Photo: BRIANNE WOLGRAM. . . vanished
• Photo: Companion 2
Thank you to Sandra and Barb (PNG News Research Library).
Posted with permission. Courtesy The Province
The Province
Sun Sep 13 1998
Page: A6
Section: News
Byline: Lora Grindlay, Staff Reporter
Source: The Province
It’s a mystery so bizarre that even the people closest to her can’t fathom why she’s gone.
Brianne Wolgram, a 19-year-old Revelstoke woman, hasn’t been seen for sure since Saturday at about 11 p.m., when she was spotted at the local 7-Eleven store chatting with a small group of people.
Yesterday, Revelstoke Mounties were trying to confirm a report by a hunter who said he saw the teen walking along an isolated logging road about a day before she was reported missing.
The man described her clothing, something that has yet to be made public.
Mounties aren’t sure who she was talking to at the 7-Eleven, and they have nothing to indicate that foul play is involved in her disappearance — but they admit they’re as baffled as her family.
“This girl had no reason to run away from anything. She had nothing but life ahead of her,” said Sgt. Art Kleinsmith.
The black 1989 Acura Integra she bought four months ago was located Thursday on a forestry road south of Revelstoke by RCMP air services from Kelowna.
Brianne lives with her mom and dad in Revelstoke, works part-time at a McDonald’s restaurant and full- time at a gas station and has good friends who police say are helping with the investigation.
“Something weird has happened,” said her mom, Sheryl Wolgram, who checks Brianne’s room every morning hoping her daughter will be there.
“I’m hoping I’m in a dream and when I wake up, this isn’t going on.”
Wolgram said Brianne had planned to pick up a friend at 11 p.m. Saturday but didn’t show up.
Her daughter “looked pooped” on Saturday, she said, because she had been working long hours.
“When Brianne says she is going to do something, she does it,” Wolgram said.
“And she’s not the type of person to go anywhere by herself. She always has to have someone with her.”
Brianne has suffered two bouts of seasonal affective disorder in the past, which made her depressed, but her family hasn’t seen any of the symptoms in recent weeks.
Posters with Brianne’s picture are being sent across Canada.
Police are planning a helicopter search of the Revelstoke area.
Anyone with any information is asked to call Revelstoke RCMP at 250-837-5255.
Illustration:
• Color Photo: Brianne Wolgram vanished into night
Edition: Final
Story Type: News
Length: 379 words
Idnumber: 199809130161
Thank you to Sandra and Barb (PNG News Research Library).
The Revelstoke Crimestoppers website is up-and-running again. The June 2009 video footage from CHBC can be viewed here (may take some time to load).
CBC searched their Radio & Television archives for any reference to Brianne Wolgram and found only one reference to a radio segment aired on March 8, 1999, in Kelowna.
I’ve done some minor editing and formatting.
BROADCAST: DAYBREAK KELOWNA
Bcast Date: MAR08-99 Start:06:00:00 End:09:00:00
Program City: KELOWNA Part: –
Department: CURRENT AFFAIRS Net/Regl/Local:L
Radio/Stereo: R Delayed Release? N Recorded? N
Original/Repeat: O First Bcast: MAR08-99 Reworked? N
Canadian Content Cat 2: / = % Cat3: / =
Series Title: DAYBREAK
Episode Title:
PERSON: ALISON PAINE
Capacity: HOST
Canadian? Y Female? Y
PERSON: JOHN BOIVIN
Capacity: PRODUCER
MAR03/99 HYPNOTIST CL LIVE PHONER 640
TALKING TO LEE PULOS
BB: POLICE ARE USING HYPNOTISTS TO HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF A MISSING REVELSTOKE GIRL…MORE LATER THIS HOUR.
INTRO:
POLICE ARE HOPING A HYPNOTIST CAN HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF A MISSING REVELSTOKE WOMAN. BRIANNE WOLGRAM DISAPPEARED EARLY LAST SEPTEMBER. HER CAR WAS LATER FOUND NEAR A LOGGING ROAD BUT HER WHEREABOUTS IS STILL A PUZZLE. NOW INVESTIGATORS HAVE SOUGHT THE HELP OF DR LEE PULOS. HE’S THE PRESIDENT OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL HYPNOTISTS IN B.C. AND HE JOINS ME ON THE LINE FROM VANCOUVER.
QUESTIONS:
1. HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE CASE…?
2. AS A RESULT OF THE HYPNOTISM, WHAT WERE THE WITNESSES ABLE TO REVEAL..?
3. HOW DOES HYPNOTISM WORK..? – what do you have to do to hypnotise patients…
4. WHY ARE PEOPLE ABLE TO REVEAL DETAILS THEY ARE OTHERWISE UNABLE TO DO SO IN A CONSCIOUS STATE..?
5. HOW ACCURATE ARE THESE DESCRIPTIONS..?
6. HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU BEEN ASKED TO HELP OUT IN POLICE INVESTIGATIONS..? – AND TO WHAT EXTEND DID IT HELP POLICE SOLVE THE CASES..?
EXTRO:
LEE PULOS IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF CLINICAL HYPNOTISTS OF B.C.
BACKGROUND ON LEE PULOS
– A good interview, chatty and informative. Hypnotism is commonly used by police investigators to help witnesses refresh their memories. He personally has been involved in more than 250 cases. But he says because of budget cutbacks, he hasn’t been called as frequently as he used to be. He has been involved in high profile cases such as the Abbotsford killer, the air India bombing.
His latest case involved Brianne Wolgram. Wolgram is the nineteen year old Revelstoke girl that went missing early last September. Her car was found by the side of a logging road. Two people who were the last to see her were hypnotised by Lee to sharpen their memories of what they saw.
Lee hypnotised a female friend of Brianne’s. Under hypnotism, she told Lee of a guy in a red truck that was hanging around Brianne and her girlfriends. He apparently was leering at the girls. This witness was able to help police come up with a composite drawing of the guy in the red truck.
The other person Lee hypnotised was a male person. He was the last person who saw Brianne alive. He says he saw Brianne the day after the truck incident. Lee says he wasn’t a good witness.
Pulos describes hypnotism as being in a natural state of consciousness. He says patients are fully aware of their surroundings when they are being hypnotised. But under hypnotism, they become more focused and are able to filter out what is irrelevant. It helps them to refresh their memories and draw out details. He adds that under hypnotism their brain shifts from right to left.
How accurate is memory under hypnotism..? Says it’s a controversial issue, memory is very fluid. It’s a very grey area but he says there have been many cases where witnesses have been able to help police solve cases. If it weren’t useful, it wouldn’t continue as a tool police use.
PERSON: pulos lee
Capacity: hypnotist
Canadian? Y
SUBJECT: HYPNOTISM, MISSING PERSON
This is actually information I’ve never seen or heard before. Is anyone able to elaborate on this? If so, please contact us.
Thank you to Colin from CBC and Florence from CTV.
CTV does not have anything in reference to Brianne.
Spoke with Dr. Lee Pulos a few days ago. He does not remember Brianne’s case; records are destroyed after 7 years.
I asked him for clarification on his statement that the male was “not a good witness”. He responded by saying the witness was probably not a good subject for hypnotism.
Another article clipped from a local newspaper with an unknown author. This article was published approximately one month after Brianne Wolgram’s disappearance.
The Issue A Revelstoke woman has been missing for nearly one month and rumours of her whereabouts and condition have been rampant.
We suggest A community that cares about its own, shouldn’t be participating in the rumour mongering that is plaguing Revelstoke.
Whoever invented the term “the town gossip” should have pluralized it instead. It’s been almost one month since Revelstoke’s Brianne Wolgram went missing and since the news broke, various members of the community have either started or participated in the spreading of countless rumours explaining the whereabouts of Brianne and her condition. This is simply sickening.
Brianne is a real person. She has a real family, real friends, and her disappearance is frighteningly real.
These rumours are nothing but hot air traveling mouth-to-ear, from windbag-to-windbag, serving no purpose but to apparently ease the humdrum existence of those bored with small-town life.
But remember, this is a small town. And those rumours that seem so exciting to spread are damn painful to the people who love and care about Brianne.
It’s quite clear the Wolgrams and their close friends have enough to worry about without trying to avoid the latest gossip – and we at the newspaper have, unfortunately, been enlightened with a fair number of those so-called news tips about Brianne.
The RCMP say they’ve heard tales of how Brianne has been spotted all over the world. It’s a frustrated exaggeration to some extent on their part in trying to solve the mystery surrounding Brianne’s disappearance, but it does make the message very clear.
If there’s no fact to support something, don’t bother repeating it.
But there will be those who give in to the temptation regardless. What the rest of us can do to stop the insanity is inform the gossip mongers in our midst how little we care for their tales, and ask them to think before they spew any more verbal diarrhea.
If you need to ease your desire for spiteful, baseless commentary, check out the magazine rack at your local supermarket and pick up the latest Hollywood tabloid and then take a moment to remember where you live.
This is Revelstoke, a community that needs to stick together and support Brianne’s family and friends. Rumours do nothing but hurt them and divide us.
This article was written by Gregg Chamberlain eight months after Brianne Wolgram’s disappearance. We have a clipping from the Revelstoke Times Review.
The RCMP say they have not made an arrest in the Brianne Wolgram missing persons case, nor do they suspect a former Revelstoke resident now in the psychiatric ward in Vernon of having murdered the woman.
Sgt. Art Kleinsmith said Tuesday the report circulating around town is nothing but a “vicious rumor” and the people spreading it should stop.
“It causes more grief for the family,” Kleinsmith said. “That’s where the rumor mill does the most damage.”
Earlier this week, CKCR radio aired an editorial condemning the rumor after listeners phoned asking if there was any truth to it. Kleinsmith said police are checking out all tips related to the case but he noted that people who start false rumors can be charged under the criminal code with public mischief if they are found out.
Brianne Wolgram has been missing for eight months now. Rhonda Morgan, of the Missing Children Society of Canada, which is working with police on the case, said her office has received 40-50 calls since the release in February of composite drawings of two women who were last seen with Wolgram the night she disappeared.
The two are being sought as potential sources of information in the case. A third woman is also sought but not enough details were available about her appearance for a composite drawing. A general description of her has been released.
Both the RCMP and the society are now waiting for the snow pack to melt in the Akolkolex area where Wolgram’s car was found a few days after she was reported missing. Both groups plan searches in the area before the foliage and brush become too thick.
Anyone with real information about the case is asked to either call the RCMP at 837-5255, Crimestoppers at 837-8477, or the Missing Children’s Society of Canada toll free at 1-800-661-6160.
We believe this article was published approximately one year after Brianne Wolgram’s disappearance. All we have is a clipping from a local paper that does not show the author or exact date.
Here is a message and a polite request to all of the gossips out there in the community. Would you please shut up for a change? Yes, that is being polite considering the latest rumour we’ve been asked to confirm regarding the case of Brianne Wolgram. We’re not even going to repeat this one but if you thought the trash about the guy in the psycho ward was bad, this one is just plain vile. Some creeps are amusing themselves at the expense of the Wolgram family. We hope someone turns them in so they can be charged. Meanwhile, we can really help the Wolgrams and RCMP by not passing on these stories.
Brianne Wolgram circa 1997
Find Brianne Wolgram 
