'Everything was gone': Parents of crash victim heartbroken after highway memorial disappears

The parents of Ethan Boyer – a 19-year-old who died in a car crash in 2019 – say they are heartbroken after learning the memorial for their son has disappeared.

Ethan – a student at the University of Manitoba – was on his way to school when his vehicle was rear-ended and pinned between two semi trucks on the Perimeter Highway near the Brady Road turnoff that no longer exists.

Susan Zuc-Boyer and Dana Boyer said they were stopping by their son's memorial site on Sunday to install a new metal sign, as the previous sign was falling apart.

"As we're driving by, I'm looking and looking and I can't see it," said Zuc-Boyer. She said she eventually found the spot where the memorial was supposed to be, but the actual memorial was gone.

"Like everything was gone. I walked the ditch and Dana couldn't believe it and I was tears."

Boyer said he wasn't really processing what happened, but then realized the hockey sticks that made up the memorial were gone.

"That was the stick that was in his car. He never took his hockey sticks out of his car. So that was, as I said, a gut punch. That brought it home," said Boyer.

When they originally put up the memorial, Zuc-Boyer said they kept it out of the way and were there often to visit and also clean the area.

"If we saw garbage in the ditch, we'd clean up the garbage. So it wasn't like it was a derelict memorial site that wasn't even looked after, because we were there all the time," she said. "We're just heartbroken."

Both parents said it is important that they get some answers about what happened, calling the spot significant to their family as that is where Ethan took his last breath.

"I want Ethan's sticks, the cross we made out of his stick back. That is the most important thing. The rest of it we can replace if we absolutely have to," said Boyer.

A spokesperson for the city said in an email that to their knowledge no city crews moved the memorial.

Later in the day Monday, Dana Boyer told CTV News the whereabouts of the memorial had been located. He said he had heard from Manitoba Highways who said their crews were the ones to remove the memorial.

All the items were kept and the family will be picking them up later. Boyer said the family plans on making a new memorial.

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Doyle Piwniuk's press secretary told CTV News the minister has reached out to the family and offered sympathies and is offering the opportunity to reinstall a memorial.