On what would be Emma Fillipoff’s 40th birthday, a new docuseries launches Jan. 6
Maybe this year will be lucky 13.
It’s been that many years since 26-year-old Emma Fillipoff disappeared from downtown Victoria, B.C. She was last seen outside the Empress Hotel on the night of Nov. 28, 2012. Police spoke to her for about 40 minutes. She declined help, then she walked away — barefoot.
Her case has now been reclassified by police as a historical missing person’s file, though her mother, Shelley Fillipoff of Perth, says nothing about the loss feels historical.
“Emma filters into my thoughts every day,” she said in a recent interview with Hometown News. “It still feels like yesterday. She’s just always there.”
Docuseries launches on Emma’s birthday
A new six-part docuseries and companion vodcast from filmmaker Kimberley Bordage of Bayberry Films aims to renew awareness of the case. The series, Barefoot in the Night, will release its first episode on Jan. 6, 2026, which is Emma’s 40th birthday.
The 36-minute vodcast, one of three companion pieces to the series, is already online. It features footage of Emma’s childhood, Shelley’s interview audio and visuals, and tributes to her beloved pets, including Cash the pug and Walter the tabby cat.
“I thought it was just going to be the two of us talking,” Shelley said. “I didn’t realize there were visuals. She put together a whole thing so beautifully. It’s really well done.”
Shelley said Kimberley has become both a collaborator and a dear friend. “She’s just a lovely person. I’m so thankful she decided to become part of this horrendous story.”
A labour of love, not a studio product
Kimberley confirmed that she and Shelley have been working together for a decade.
“For the last six years we have been actively working on making this series,” she said in the vodcast. “Making this independently means we don’t have a big studio, we don’t have a big budget, but what it does mean is that it’s been built with a lot of care, a lot of love, and a lot of attention to detail on making a series that I would have wanted to see when I finished watching the Fifth Estate documentary.”
In a follow-up message to Hometown News, Kimberley said everything released so far has been about “keeping Emma’s case active and visible.”
“It gives the public access to the work as it develops, maintains awareness, and shares accurate context as we continue our search initiatives,” Kimberly said. “The docuseries grew naturally out of that long-term process rather than a traditional large-scale production model.”
Protecting the integrity of the work
Releasing Episode 1 on Jan. 6 felt appropriate.
“It marks an important point in the timeline, and it allows us to share part of the work without waiting for the entire series to be finished,” Kimberley said. “Independent documentary work, especially when connected to an active missing person’s case, takes time. But we’re still working, and we’re still searching for Emma.”
She added that they’ve deliberately avoided major platform partnerships that might reshape or dilute the story.
“Reach can’t come at the expense of accuracy, context, or the underlying purpose of this project. As Shelley mentioned in the vodcast, you don’t hand something like this over to people who don’t know the history, and whose main goal is to entertain.”
Kimberley said while anyone is free to tell Emma’s story their own way, “this project is something we’ve built with the people closest to her, and it has to remain aligned with the facts, the context, and the original purpose.”
Years of false leads and international interest
Shelley has spent more than a decade following phone tips, messages, and leads, many from around the world, that have led nowhere.
“There were years where I would wake up and dread the day. I’d think, oh God, not another day without her,” she said in a previous interview with this reporter.
Over the years, international interest has occasionally surged. Age progression sketches were released in 2022 by both Victoria Police and forensic artist Hew Morrison. The second rendering more closely resembled Emma, Shelley said, but neither produced confirmed sightings.
A man known as “Green Shirt Guy” was spotted in a Vancouver clothing store holding a crumpled missing person poster of Emma. He claimed she was his girlfriend but remains a central unresolved lead. He was the focus of a 2023 documentary preview and continues to draw investigative attention.
“He seemed irritated in the video,” Shelley said at the time. “He left before police arrived.”
The man has never been identified.
Search efforts have spanned Victoria, Colwood, Belmont Park woods, Fort Rodd Hill, the Galloping Goose Trail and other areas, with support from volunteer search teams, cadaver dog handler Kim Cooper, and members of Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue. No confirmed evidence has ever been found.
Journals still with police
Shelley confirmed that many of Emma’s journals and personal effects remain with police, and she wants them returned.
“They belong with her family,” Shelley said. “They’re her handwriting, her artwork. They aren’t just evidence.”
She hopes the police will return the items, along with Emma’s camera.
A mother’s grief and hope
When Shelley began preparing to sell her home, she faced the room where she stored Emma’s belongings retrieved from a storage locker and Emma’s van in Victoria.
“There were 18 boxes, a huge trunk and a suitcase,” she said. “I just couldn’t face it.”
She has now reduced it to three boxes.
“I kept things I couldn’t part with,” she said, hoping Emma will be able to sort through her own belongings one day.
The process left the house hollow and quiet. Shelley said she hears her own voice echoing through the place.
“The house doesn’t feel like home anymore,” she said. “When I walk in, I feel hugged by echoes.”
Mental health crisis likely, Shelley says
Shelley believes Emma experienced a significant mental health crisis in the days before she disappeared.
“I have a really good idea what her state of mind was, and it wasn’t good,” she said. “I’m 99 per cent sure she had some kind of mental breakdown.”
She has long rejected theories that Emma left intentionally.
“No,” she said. “There’s nothing to indicate she’s anywhere.”
Even with the years of silence, Shelley has never let herself accept the worst.
“I believe she’s still alive and I have to hold onto that,” she said. “Stranger things have happened.”
New ways to help
Shelley remains determined to keep Emma’s story in the public eye.
“It’s not just about finding her,” she said. “It’s about making sure her story doesn’t fade into the background.”
The case is now officially designated a historical missing person’s file by Victoria Police Department’s Historical Case Unit, a shift that reflects the passage of time, not a reduction in urgency.
A new feature has been added to the Help Find Emma website. It’s a tool called SpeakPipe that lets the public send voice messages with tips using a simple click-and-record button. A video tutorial will launch Nov. 28.
The Search for Emma Fillipoff: 13 Years vodcast is available now at BayberryFilms.com Learn more about the upcoming docuseries, Barefoot in the Night, at HelpFindEmmaFillipoff.ca
