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It’s believed that in the early morning hours of March 17, 1995, Jay Boyle, Chad Smith, Michael Cummins, Danny Higgins, Robbie Rumboldt and Jamie Lefebvre stole a boat and water tricycle and took them for an ill-fated ride on the frigid waters of Lake Ontario.

Durham police investigated the disappearances and concluded the boys stole a boat from the East Shore Marina on Frenchman’s Bay, motored out onto Lake Ontario where they capsized their boat and died of hypothermia.

The boys and the boats remain missing. All that was found was a gas can believed to have belonged to the 14-foot Boston Whaler replica police believe the boys stole, which washed up in Wilson, NY.

However, whether this actually did belong to the missing boat.

Ricketts spent more than a decade investigating the case, pro bono, and continued to have questions about the investigation.

“I think it will take reopening up the entire case, a re-evaluation of all of the evidence that existed,” . “There’s too much hidden here, there’s too much not being said.”

Ricketts often posed questions to police and filed freedom of information requests up until his death.

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It is unknown whether anybody else will continue to look into the case of the missing boys.

Ricketts appeared to have continued his investigation, with his latest blog post just more than a month before his death. Ricketts had posted about a “coincidence” around the case that had been bothering him in the post dated Nov. 29, 2023.

“I have been working on the case of the Lost Boys of Pickering for over 13 years now,” he said. “There have been ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, but we push on.”

Ricketts pointed to a fire that occurred five kilometres away from where the boys were reported to have gone missing, on March 23, just days after the boys were last seen. He had filed an access request for documentation of the fire, curious to find any information on the possibility that one of the stolen boats was burned there.

“Let’s see if we can put this coincidence to rest,” he had said.

Ricketts never posted again before his death.

Anyone with information on the case can call Durham police at 905-579-1520, or anonymously contact Durham Regional Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or going online to .