The family of a missing Canadian Forces member is pleading for him to reach out to them after he went missing early Saturday morning.

Pte. Michal Beaman, 22, may have been last seen at the Warming and Counselling Centre on Wellington Street a little after midnight, said Lt.-Col. Walter Gamblin, commandant of the Canadian Forces School of Communications and Electronics at Canadian Forces Base Kingston.

On Monday, nearly 300 members from the base, with the assistance of the Kingston Police — with their unmanned aerial vehicle — scoured the city.

Beaman, originally from Saint John, N.B., has been on course at the School of Communications and Electronics since early January, his aunt Tracy Brewer said. On Friday night, he and his course mates went to The Spot nightclub in the Hub. Brewer said the family has been told that surveillance footage shows him speaking to a number of people at the club.

The footage also shows him speaking to a woman outside the club for a number of minutes. Brewer said the woman then threw her hands up in the air and walked back into the club. Beaman did not. He was also seen speaking to a group of people in a taxi before leaving the area just before midnight.

At the time, he was wearing blue jeans, a grey hoodie, a black jacket and red shoes. He is a five-foot-eight white male with brown hair and eyes.

Beaman’s cellphone last pinged a cellular tower a little after midnight, Gamblin said. Brewer explained that his friends had told investigators that Beaman was having trouble with the phone’s battery life. The phone has not been located.

He said investigators would like to connect with the woman to whom Beaman was speaking outside The Spot. In the meantime, they are working on retracing Beaman’s steps. That investigation brought them to the warming centre on Wellington Street.

“(Investigators) are really trying to focus on reconstructing the timeline and sequence of events, the path that Pte. Beaman might have taken as he left the Hub so that they can steer our search efforts,” Gamblin said.

Gamblin said that the tip Beaman stopped in at the centre has yet to be substantiated, but Brewer has also been told that her nephew stopped in at the centre. Gamblin noted the centre would have been in his natural path back to base.

While it has not been confirmed, investigators have been told that a person matching Beaman’s description went into the centre, warmed up, had an empty wallet that he had dropped, and it was given back to him before he left, Gamblin said.

“(Investigators) are still working towards getting more of the close-circuit camera footage along the route that they think he might have taken,” Gamblin said. “They’re hoping to get enough fidelity on the images to identify who he was with at any point during the evening to start identifying them, and potentially asking them some questions.”

Kingston Police are assisting the CFNIS with their investigation. Sgt. Darren Keuhl has been operating the UAV in various locations throughout the city. Sgt. Steve Koopman said Beaman’s photos have been circulated to officers on the road and an investigator is liaising with CFNIS.

Brewer said she’s been told that a group of homeless people met Beaman in a park near The Spot. They then took her nephew to the centre, where he stayed for quite a while, simply talking, being friendly and warming up.

“That’s just something typical Micky would do,” Brewer said. “Just sit and talk to the homeless.”

She said he then asked them how to get back to CFB Kingston. They told him he’d have to cross over the LaSalle Causeway to get there.

Beaman and his course mates had taken a taxicab to The Spot Friday evening. He had told his course mates at the club that he’d be leaving with a girl, Brewer said. When the course mates made it back to their barracks, Beaman was not there. He was still not there the next morning, and his pickup truck was still parked where he’d left it.

That is when the course mates informed their chain of command, said Capt. Kimberly Lemaire, public affairs officer for CFB Kingston.

The chain of command informed the Military Police soon after, and when Beaman did not show for dinner on Sunday, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service called Beaman’s parents.

His parents drove through the night to Kingston from Saint John, while Brewer is watching their dog and Beaman’s two younger siblings. Beaman’s parents are being housed on the base and they have a team dedicated to supporting them and maintain contact, Gamblin said.

When Beaman did not show for morning physical training at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, search parties were organized.

“If he could contact us, he would have, that’s what is so worrying,” Brewer said. “If he could return to the base, he would have. That’s what’s really concerning.”

She explained that Beaman’s routine would have been to go to bed before 9 p.m. to be up in time for PT.

Gamblin said the first phase searched CFB Kingston, the surrounding area and the shoreline. The second phase, doubling the size of the search party, was sent into the downtown core after lunch.

In addition to searching for Beaman specifically, members are searching for any of this property that he may have dropped.

Gamblin said Beaman’s parents appeared overwhelmed with the number of people out searching for their son.

“We had a discussion with them and said that the best thing that they can do is to clean themselves up and to get a little bit of rest after the long drive and let our military members carry on,” Gamblin said. “I anticipate that if nothing turns up this evening, or through the night, we will resume search efforts to sweep the areas we’ve already searched and to look in other areas tomorrow.

“I anticipate the family will be more keen to be out there.”

Anyone with information on Beaman’s whereabouts is asked to contact the CFB Kingston Military Police at 613-541-5010, ext. 2044.

“The whole team that is out is pretty hopeful that something turns up,” Gamblin said. “The reason that we’re searching in uniform is we’re hoping that members of the Kingston community, when they see uniforms out there and they hear what this is all about, may come forward and actively engage some of our folks walking downtown with some information and every little thing will help.”