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The Edmonton Police Service issued a public appeal for help to locate a 29-year-old man who is well known in sports circles.

Jessy Alain Lessard went missing June 13th, 2007 from the area of 137th Avenue and 127th Street. He was described as 6-feet, approximately 170 lbs, with short black hair, brown eyes, glasses and a thin moustache.

Lessard is involved in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and regularly competes professionally, ranked as a middleweight fighter. He is in excellent physical condition and has no health issues. He is known to hang out in coffee shops on Whyte Avenue.

Since he went missing, Lessard has not contacted friends or relatives who said it was very unusual for him to be gone for this length of time without anyone knowing.

The Edmonton Sun spoke to Mike Yackulic, owner of Arashi-Do Martial Arts.

"He just kind of fell off the face of the earth," said Yackulic, who added Lessard had been training at Arashi-Do for about eight months before he disappeared.

Yackulic said Lessard had "extraordinary drive" and he stuck out for his intense dedication to training.

"When he was in town he'd be training four to five hours a day. I would say he was an average fighter, but with extraordinary drive. The guy would just bust his ass."

Jessy Alain Lessard - Edmonton Sun image

At right, Lessard after a fight during the King of the Cage event at the AgriCom, October 3rd, 2005.

Yackulic told the Sun Lessard was out of town a lot, apparently working on oil rigs near Rocky Mountain House, and had recently moved to another home within the city.

Lessard and Yackulic last met at a training gym at 12730 St. Albert Trail on June 11th, and despite tentatively booking future training plans Yackulic never heard from the man again.

"We're at a loss," said a police spokesman who also noted foul play was not suspected. "There's nothing to suggest at this time that there's anything criminal in nature."

While at first police did not consider Lessard's disappearance to be suspicious, all that changed on August 25th, 2007 when the Edmonton Sun reported the martial arts athlete had been placed on a Project KARE bulletin.

The Sun cited a source acquainted with Project KARE cases who said a periodic missing-persons bulletin sent out days before noted that while Lessard doesn't fit task force's mandate it was nevertheless helping Edmonton police with the case.

While the newspaper reported it wasn't the first time Project KARE was investigating a case involving a man, the Sun did not provide further details.

It was the second time in six weeks that the Sun published information from Project KARE bulletins labelled not for media release.

Reporting on the July 1st, 2007 non-criminal death of Norma Jane McNeil, the newspaper revealed at least four high-risk women had gone missing from the streets of Edmonton since March 2007.

At the time, Project KARE spokesman Cst. Tamara Bellamy said that not all persons who appear on the KARE bulletins are suspected victims of foul play.

Also on the late-August notice Project KARE indicated they were looking for 23-year-old Coral Lafferty.

Lafferty was described as 5-feet 5-inches, 160 lbs with brownish red hair and brown eyes.

There was no information in the Sun on how Lafferty went missing, but their source said the news of more missing people is disturbing.

"It makes you sick to your stomach," said the source. "You just pray that she might be found."

Those prayers were answered two days later when Coral came back from Calgary, now safe and sound in her mother's arms.

Patricia Lafferty wept with joy while speaking to the Sun.

"I told her I love her," said Patricia. "Right now she's OK. The worrying is not over, but right now she's OK and that's all that matters."

deadmonton 2007 - other police matters - jessy alain lessard