Question about a missing child episode

[The Gooch]

There was an episode once where the family of a Montreal boy from the 1950s I think, believed he had died or been kidnapped. The parents divorced and had moved away from one another by that point. Years later the mother and sisters found a picture of the boy with his father showing him to be older than when he had disappeared. Although the father was dead by that time, they were somehow able to track down the child who was now an adult working in Calgary. His name was reversed and he had left his job a few months prior, leaving no forwarding address. Does anyone know this case and what the name of the boy or the family is ?

[DarkDante]

Yeah you are referring to the Clifford Sherwood case which I believe is the oldest "missing persons" case on the dockets in at least that are of Canada. Sherwood's father was basically very abusive to Clifford's mother and she finally did leave him and file for divorce. Clifford's father whom everyone called "Tex" was still very much in the picture as he took his two daughters to live with him and Clifford stayed with his mother. Tex Sherwood would often drop by to see Clifford on occasion and it appeared that he still cared very much for his son.

Then one day Clifford was walking to school with another boy when they ran into a mutual friend who I believe was named George Gumbly. The boys talked for awhile and then George ran on ahead to get to school. This was the last anyone ever saw of Clifford or the other boy who I believe was named Butch. Clifford's mother was called to the local morgue sometime later to identify a body which authorities thought was Clifford but Clifford's mother protested that the dead boy was not her son.

She believed that her ex-husband Tex abducted Clifford and was raising him on his own using an alias that he used in the military (Edward Thorne) - This allegation was backed up by the photographs you mentioned and also due to the fact that in later years when any family member would bring up Clifford's name to Tex he would break into a fit of rage or refuse to discuss the matter any further.

There has never been any proof that the person they did "locate" was THE CLIFFORD SHERWOOD. Yes it is interesting that this individual had the exact same birthdate and had the "names reversed" as you noted on his drivers license but there is equal evidence to support the fact that Tex Sherwood had nothing to do with his son's disappearance and this is due to the fact that "Butch" went missing at the exact same time as Clifford and has also never been found. This information leads me to believe that Clifford and Butch were likely abducted and murdered by a stranger on the day they were walking to school with George Gumbly.

Later.

[nohwheregirl]

I always thought this story was done poorly. Where's Butch? Where is Butch's family? What did Clifford's family think happened to Butch? It's like they ignored half of the story.

[PrettyinPink55]

I wish they'd gone into more detail.