What happened to Bette-Jean?

NEWS/ POLICE — On July 3, 1960, police received a report of a lost child in the Red Lake area, 45 miles northwest of Kamloops. Twenty-one-month-old Edna Bette-Jean Masters was never found and no evidence of what happened to her was located. Known to the family as Bette-Jean, she was last seen playing with family and friends at a friend’s residence.

Kamloops Rural RCMP haven’t given up trying to find out what happened. Cpl. Cheryl Bush of the Kamloops police detachment said today (Wednesday) files are regularly reviewed and investigators often use new investigative tools to further the progress.

At the time of her disappearance, Bette-Jean was wearing a green bonnet with white frill, an undershirt, a pink short-sleeved t-shirt, faded pink overalls, white socks and sandals. She weighed about 24 pounds, had blonde, fine, curly hair, blue eyes, and a fair complexion.

In 1960, the area was searched extensively by volunteers, police, airplane and police dog. The search included the yard, surrounding forests, ponds and roadways. Numerous tips were generated but nothing has been found that would suggest what happened to Bette-Jean.

The file was brought back into the media in August of 2013 when investigators made another plea to the public to call if they had information. Since that time, RCMP have utilized forensic art services to create an age progression drawing of what Bette Jean may look like today. This is done using the photos that existed of Bette Jean at the time of her disappearance and photos of her siblings, mother and father. The artist looks at various facial bone structures and the overall shape to complete the sketch.

Anyone with information about this case, no matter how seemingly insignificant is asked to call Kamloops Rural RCMP at (250)314-1800 or Crime Stoppers.