 Missing Ontario nurse, Sonia Varaschin, was last seen Sunday night. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)
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ORANGEVILLE, Ont. - Police hunting clues to Orangeville nurse Sonia Varaschin's disappearance fear she may be dead, a lead OPP detective said Thursday.
Despite continued hope "we're preparing the family and ourselves for the worst," Det.-Insp. Mark Pritchard told reporters around noon.
He would not discuss details, including blood found in her Spring St. home and small car abandoned near the town hall, but cited forensic evidence for suggesting her possible homicide.
A Hospital for Sick Children nurse in Toronto until she quit last September to work at a Newmarket hospital, Varaschin failed to show up for work Monday at a Mississauga pharmaceutical firm.
No suspect has been suggested by police, but Pritchard said, "it is unlikely it was a stranger."
A Facebook message Varaschin sent a former classmate early in 2009 said she remained single, "almost married twice, but a good thing it didn't happen."
A Youtube video a friend posted from a vacation that July in the Tonquin Valley in Jasper, Alta., shows her laughing and enjoying time "with great girlfriends."
Earlier Thursday, the task force issued a statement dismissing several media reports as "erroneous and unsubstantiated."
It was put out after a Toronto radio station quoted an unnamed police source telling a reporter Varaschin was murdered and dismembered in her home.
In an interview, OPP Const. Peter Leon said Varaschin's recent boyfriend has been spoken with and the driver of a van filmed driving past the town hall early Monday contacted officers "and was unable to assist us."
Orangeville Police Chief Joseph Tomei urged town and rural residents to look for anything out-of-place or suspicious around the properties, requesting they call the tip line "no matter how small the detail."
About 100 officers continue combing an ever-wider area around the town of 27,000, including fields, wooded areas and swamps, Leon said.
Reached at her Bolton area home Thursday, mom Michele Varaschin said "we're doing fine ... we have a lot of friends and family.
"I don't want to talk," she said. "I hope they find her ... that's it."
On Facebook, friends announced a 7-11:30 p.m. Sunday candlelight prayer vigil outside Orangeville's town hall.
Regretting living too far away to attend, Kimberly Moyles called the vigil "a sweet thought for a sweet girl."
ian.robertson@sunmedia.ca
