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A friend of a Halifax homeless man who’s been missing for more than a week says Halifax Regional Police have given up on the case without conducting a proper investigation.

St. John’s resident Brittany Easley said she last made contact with 30-year-old Christian Unrau on Dec. 27 while he was living in a tent in Point Pleasant Park. Conditions were particularly nasty on that day with temperatures dropping to -13 C with the wind chill.

“The last words he said to me was that he was so cold,” recalled Easley through tears.

She said she called a HRP dispatcher that evening to report her concerns and then filed a missing person complaint with an officer at the department on New Year’s Eve. The officer she said she spoke to six times that night never provided his name.

“I was just so distraught by the way I was treated by this officer,” recalled Easley through tears. “It was as if he never took my complaint seriously and showed no compassion. He was clearly annoyed and asked me questions like, ‘What makes you think he wants to be found? Did he beg for money?’”

“I wanted them to do a proper search and give me answers and maintain communication with me. Now, I’m here playing private investigator.”

She said the officer and three others conducted a search of the park that evening. A police vehicle drove the park’s pathway network while two others with heat sensing goggles searched the wooded area.

Easley said she last spoke to the officer shortly after midnight. He pledged to call her at the end of his shift but the call never arrived.

She said she called the department that afternoon and spoke to a dispatcher who said a sergeant would be in touch later in the day. She didn’t receive that call.

Unrau had arrived in Halifax from Montreal a month and a half ago and had been tenting in the woods bordering Point Pleasant Park with his dog. She said Unrau could not find a shelter that would permit the animal access and he wouldn't abandon the dog.

He had been in the process of trying to travel to St. John’s to start over with the help of his friend of 10 years. While he was living in Halifax the pair spoke every day.

He had gotten over a drug addiction and he was optimistic about the future, said Easley.

“He did not have an easy life. His parents gave up on him and Christian grew up in foster homes but he was talented and had worked different jobs as a photo editor and roofer. He wanted a better life for himself.”

She says police issued her a missing person’s case number (HP18-199-507) but HRP spokesman Const. John MacLeod said the department has no record of the file.

MacLeod says all missing person reports are investigated.

Following that, the matter goes through a series of steps that involve consulting with the person’s family, friends and coworkers and checking areas where the person’s known to frequent.

The case could also be handled by a missing person’s investigator in the special enforcement section of the criminal investigation division.

A media release requesting the public’s assistance locating a missing person may be issued in situations where the person is 12 years and under or there is concern for the person’s well-being.

But MacLeod didn’t provide a timeline for each step of an investigation.

Nor did he say whether the department has a protocol to be followed in dealing with the person filing the missing person’s report or when ground search and rescue is to be called in to assist. Ground search and rescue teams in the province can’t be activated unless given permission by police.

Easley and her mother continue to look for clues on Unrau’s whereabouts, calling shelters in the city. So far they’ve come up empty-handed.

Each day she calls Unrau’s phone and for the first time since his disappearance, his phone was dead on Thursday.

“That tells me he’s in a lot of trouble and I’m so concerned,” said Easley.

“He knows my number, he still knows to call me and he’s loyal enough to do that. There’s no reason to ghost everyone he knows.”