On a summer day in August 2021, 38-year-old Kari Lynn Rose Campbell travelled by taxi to the Durham Bridge area. What began as an apparently ordinary trip would become the final known journey of a woman whose family is still waiting to learn what happened to her.
Kari lived in Fredericton and was the mother of a young adult son, Tyler Campbell-Stafford. Tyler later described his mother as caring and gentle, someone who “wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He also spoke openly about some of the difficulties she had faced during her life, including struggles with alcohol and substance use disorder. According to Tyler, Kari had been participating in a methadone program for approximately eight years and had been trying to move forward with her life.
Shortly before she disappeared, Kari had purchased a new cellphone. Tyler later recalled his mother excitedly showing him the phone and demonstrating its camera and other features. It was an incredibly ordinary moment—the sort of interaction that would probably have meant very little had Kari come home afterward.
Tyler was heading out to have dinner with friends. Before leaving their apartment, he told his mother that he loved her. When he returned home later, Kari wasn’t there.
He would never see her again.
According to Tyler’s account of what investigators subsequently told him, Kari had taken a taxi to a convenience store in the Durham Bridge area, north of the city. Why Kari was travelling to Durham Bridge has never been publicly explained.
What police have confirmed is that Kari’s trail eventually led to Lower Durham Road in Durham Bridge.
New Brunswick RCMP has repeatedly stated that Kari was last seen on the morning of August 19, 2021, outside a residence on Lower Durham Road. Police have never publicly identified the residence or explained why Kari was there. They have not disclosed who was inside the home, who Kari may have been visiting or who last physically saw her there.
Somewhere between Kari leaving Fredericton and arriving on Lower Durham Road are pieces of a story that remain largely hidden from the public. How Kari travelled from the convenience store to the Lower Durham Road residence has not been publicly established. Neither has what happened after she arrived. What is known is that Kari seemingly vanished afterward.
Tyler tried calling and texting his mother and his messages initially continued showing as delivered, but by the following day, they were no longer going through. The brand-new cellphone Kari had been so excited about had gone silent. Kari was reported missing to the Fredericton Police Force on August 22, 2021. The Keswick RCMP subsequently assumed responsibility for the investigation and began following leads in an effort to determine where Kari had gone.
There has been a slight discrepancy in official records concerning exactly when Kari disappeared. New Brunswick RCMP has repeatedly said she was last seen on August 19, including in its most recent public appeal. Canada’s Missing, however, currently records her missing-since date as August 18, 2021. Because the investigators themselves have repeatedly identified August 19 as the date of the Lower Durham Road sighting, that is the date most closely associated with Kari’s disappearance.
Kari was approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighting 95 kilograms (approximately 209 pounds), with medium-length brown hair and blue eyes. She had several distinctive tattoos, including butterflies on her leg and forearm and a sun tattoo on her shoulder blade. Police said Kari was wearing blue jeans and a grey sweater and had blue Under Armour shoes. She was carrying a brown purse. Canada’s Missing provides an additional detail, listing a red or orange T-shirt underneath a grey hooded top.
As the days passed, Kari’s disappearance became increasingly alarming. She didn’t contact Tyler or the other people close to her. There were also no publicly announced confirmed sightings.
And Kari missed something her family believed she wouldn’t ordinarily have missed – her son’s birthday. By the first anniversary of her disappearance, investigators were willing to publicly acknowledge just how serious they believed the situation had become.
In August 2022, the RCMP said that nobody had seen or heard from Kari since she disappeared. More significantly, police revealed that based on information obtained during their investigation, they believed Kari may be deceased, but they did not explain why.
Police have never publicly announced that Kari was murdered and they have not identified a suspect, publicly accused anyone connected with the Lower Durham Road residence, or disclosed evidence establishing that another person caused Kari’s disappearance. Nevertheless, investigators clearly uncovered something that caused them to consider the possibility that Kari was no longer alive.
For Kari’s family, knowing that police held those concerns while still having no answers about where she was must have been agonizing.
The family eventually offered a $10,000 reward for information that could help locate Kari. Someone, they hoped, might remember something, or perhaps someone who already knew what happened might finally decide to speak. Still, Kari remains missing.
Then, in August 2024, three years after she disappeared, responsibility for the investigation shifted to the New Brunswick RCMP Major Crime Unit. The transfer immediately raised questions. Major Crime units investigate serious and potentially criminal matters, but the transfer alone does not establish that Kari was murdered. Police have not publicly disclosed the evidence behind their decision or announced that the case has formally become a homicide investigation.
It did, however, demonstrate the seriousness with which Kari’s disappearance was being treated and the questions surrounding her final known journey remained.
Who was she planning to see? How did she get from the convenience store to the residence on Lower Durham Road? Who was the last person to actually speak with her? Did anyone see Kari leave that area? And what happened to the new cellphone she had shown her son shortly before she disappeared?
Police may know the answers to some of those questions. If they do, they haven’t made them public.
There are several possible explanations whenever an adult disappears. Someone may leave voluntarily. An accident can occur. A person can become lost or injured somewhere they aren’t easily discovered. And, unfortunately, another person can sometimes be responsible.
In Kari’s case, however, there isn’t enough publicly available evidence to responsibly choose among those possibilities.
There are theories and rumours online, as there often are in unresolved missing-person cases. But no credible public evidence currently supports accusing any named individual of involvement in Kari’s disappearance. Until police release further information, speculation should not be presented as fact.
What we are left with instead is Kari’s final known trail. A mother living in Fredericton bought herself a new cellphone and excitedly showed it to her son. Her son went out for dinner. He told her he loved her. Kari travelled by taxi toward Durham Bridge and she was eventually seen outside a residence on Lower Durham Road. Her cellphone stopped receiving messages.
And Kari has never seen by her family again.
On August 19, 2025, four years after Kari disappeared, the RCMP renewed its appeal to the public. The investigation remains with the New Brunswick RCMP Major Crime Unit, and police continue asking anyone with information to come forward.
Perhaps someone remembers seeing Kari travelling through the Durham Bridge area that day. Maybe someone remembers a vehicle on Lower Durham Road, a conversation that seemed insignificant at the time, or something they heard afterward, or perhaps someone has always known exactly what happened.
Nearly five years after Kari disappeared, her family still doesn’t have the most basic thing every family of a missing person desperately wants: The chance to bring her home.
Until that happens, one stretch of Lower Durham Road remains at the centre of an unanswered question.
What happened to Kari Lynn Rose Campbell after she arrived there?
If you have information on Kari’s case, please contact any of the following:
J DIV West District RCMP: 506-755-1130
Reference Case#: O20211255900
Canada’s Missing Case reference: 2021037317
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
Send email to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains at: canadasmissing-disparuscanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Sources: Canada’s Missing / RCMP; New Brunswick RCMP; CBC News reporting and interviews with Kari’s family.
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