OPP searching a home in Smiths Falls connected to 2023 missing man case

There was a heavy police presence in an area of Smiths Falls, Ont., because officers were carrying out a search warrant.

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said in a post on X that they are searching an area on Empress Avenue in the southwest corner of the town, in connection with a missing man case from 2023.

Units from the emergency response team, forensic identification services and crime unit are on scene on July 16.

Officials say the search warrant is in connection with the disappearance of Robbie Thomson, who would now be 35. He was reported missing Oct. 19, 2023. It’s believed he went missing sometime between Oct. 12 and 18 of that year.

The last update officials gave in October last year, they said they were searching a portion of the Rideau River at Lower Reach Park. This is about 2.4 kilometres from the current search warrant being carried out on Empress Avenue.

In the water, police recovered a vehicle that was reported stolen in the 90s. The river operation followed an extensive ground search in July 2024.

Two men missing from the area

There are two missing person cases that remain unsolved in the area.

Prior to Thomson going missing, a local man named Lawrence Bertrim, who would now be 44, was last seen on Sept. 30, 2022, in downtown Smiths Falls.

The Smiths Falls Police Service (SFPS) initially began a missing person investigation and requested assistance from OPP in December 2022. 

The river search was an effort by police to find clues in either missing investigations. Officials continue to say they cannot rule out the possibility that the two cases are connected.