LUMBY, B.C. — Something has shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.
C. It's subtle, say residents of the community of 2,000 people, nestled in the hills of the North Okanagan in B.C.
's Interior. Few people now gather outside coffee shops on the main street along Highway 6. Posters on the school doors require visitors to check in or call the office to be let in.
Heart-shaped stickers saying "Justice for Tatjana" are plastered on storefronts and car windows. It used to be the sort of place where parents let their kids roam free or play in the local creek, where shopkeepers let children have ice cream on the promise to pay later, said Tawnya Ferris, a store owner and mother of three. But everything changed when Tatjana Stefanski vanished.
"The town went hush," Ferris said. "I've always told everybody we're safe, not thinking that something would happen." RCMP say Stefanski, 44, was last seen on April 13 with her ex-husband before "departing unexpectedly" with him in a black Audi.
Stefanski's partner of four years, Jason Gaudreault, says he watched grainy CCTV footage of those moments at the end of the driveway to their house. "I can see him on the video surveillance and I see him standing beside his vehicle that had the passenger door open," Gaudreault said in an interview. Stefanski's nine-year-old son walks down the driveway as his mother approaches the vehicle.
Then, said Gaudreault, Stefanski is gone. The impact on the town was immediate. Ferris said her business .
