The Vanishing of Nick and Lisa Masee

In this episode of Valley of Secrets, Nicci Ruth delves into one of British Columbia's most perplexing unsolved disappearances. When Vancouver couple Nick and Lisa Masee vanished in August 1994 after plans to meet a mysterious businessman offering a $10 million investment, they left behind more questions than answers—and a mystery that remains unsolved more than thirty years later.

MISSING: Nick and Lisa Masee (1994) - Vancouver, British Columbia — CANADA UNSOLVED

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-27-1994-page-4-118/docview/2241699241/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-11-1996-page-12-152/docview/3212233854/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-6-2004-page-38-160/docview/3213003696/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/december-27-1994-page-29-68/docview/2242042892/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/september-3-1994-page-2-114/docview/2242233245/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/march-4-1995-page-26-124/docview/2242285885/se-2

Nick and Lisa Masee: looking back on the mysterious disappearance | CBC News

Downtown: Defunct VSE had colourful history - Vancouver Is Awesome

Missing North Vancouver, BC couple may have been murdered - Vancouver Is Awesome

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/october-4-2001-page-23-100/docview/3203529869/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-13-2000-page-16-176/docview/3212457490/se-2

https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/december-27-2000-page-4-56/docview/3203464692/se-2

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to Valley of Secrets. I'm your host, Nikki Ruth. If you're new to this podcast, welcome. I'm really glad that you guys found your way here. And I hope that you keep listening for more episodes. For those that keep returning to listen to every episode week after week or every two weeks, thank you. You are what keeps me coming back, and you have no idea how much it means to me. So with that, let's jump right into today's case, which happens to be one of British Columbia's strangest unsolved disappearances. It involves money, offshore bank accounts, a mysterious businessman, and a Vancouver couple who suddenly vanished without a trace. And more than 30 years later, investigators still don't know whether the couple was murdered or if they disappeared willingly into an entirely different life. And honestly, the deeper that I went into this case, the stranger it got. This is the story of Nick and Lisa Massey. Because something just doesn't feel right. For about a week now, Lisa's mother and boss have been trying to reach her, but their calls have gone to voicemail and haven't been returned. Nobody seems to know where she is. She was expected back to work on August 16th, but never showed. And Lisa's mother was also growing concerned as she tried calling Lisa on August 15th with no answer. Then now that worry has reached the point where Loretta, who decides she's going to drive herself over and see if everything is okay. As she pulls up to the house, the first thing she notices is the family's White Chrysler LeBaron convertible sitting in the carport. She walks up to the front door and tries the handle, and to her surprise, it's unlocked, and she notices that the alarm system is off, which is setting off her own alarms in her brain, as this is completely out of character for the massies. And at this point, what started as concern is turning into something much heavier because this no longer feels like a couple who simply forgot to call. It feels like something is terribly wrong. Lisa's sister steps inside and calls out for them. Nothing. The house is quiet. She moves through the home looking for some sign that explains where they may have gone, but instead, she finds more questions. Their passports are still sitting there in the house. And that detail stands out immediately. Nick and Lisa are experienced travelers. They have family overseas and travel internationally on a regular basis. If they've left voluntarily, if they've gone somewhere on their own accord, why would they leave their passports behind? Then she finds Spider, the couple's beloved elderly cat. Spider has been left alone inside the house and is starving. And honestly, that may be one of the most troubling details in this entire case, because people can leave unexpectedly. People can even start their new lives somewhere else. But it's difficult to imagine Lisa willingly leaving behind a cat that she adored without making arrangements for its care. And for me, that detail has always made this case feel less like a planned getaway and more like foul play may have been involved. Loretta immediately calls the North Vancouver RCMP to report Lisa and Nick missing. When police arrive and begin examining the home, they discover another detail that will become part of the mystery. Near the entrance are two zip ties. The zip ties caught investigators' attention immediately, but they were far from definitive evidence. In fact, police found no signs of forced entry, there was no indication of a struggle in the home, and nothing inside the house that clearly pointed to foul play. Like so much else in this case, the significance of those zip ties remains unknown. And very quickly, investigators find themselves facing two completely different possibilities. Were Nick and Lisa Massey victims of foul play, or had they somehow orchestrated their own disappearance? To understand why those questions are still being asked more than 30 years later, we need to go back to the beginning. Lisa Mo Yin-ho was born in China on August 11th, 1954. By 1984, she was living in Vancouver and working as a hairdresser at Yokoi Hair Design on Canby Street. It was there that she met Nick Massey. Nick was tall, tanned with bronze-colored curly hair and a mustache. At first, he was simply one of her clients, but over time the relationship grew into something more. Lisa was 29 years old, beautiful and exotic looking, with black hair and big brown eyes. She was stylish with a beautiful smile, and it was easy for Nick to fall in love with her. Nick was 16 years older than Lisa and had already established himself in Vancouver's financial world. He had worked as an account director for the Bank of Montreal and carried himself with the confidence of someone who had spent years building connections and earning trust. You know, those people who seem to know everyone. The kind of person who walks into a room and immediately starts greeting people by their name. That was Nick. He was originally from the Netherlands and he had spent decades building a successful baking career. He had also been married before and had two adult children from his first marriage. His son Nick Jr. ran a moving company in Tokyo, while his daughter Tanya worked as a secretary in Holland. Eventually, Nick and Lisa married and settled into a home in North Vancouver. Friends described them as genuinely happy together. People who knew Nick often spoke about how devoted he was to Lisa. He seemed proud of her, protective of her, and deeply committed to their relationship. From the outside, appeared to have built a life that many people would envy. They traveled frequently, they had international connections, and they moved comfortably within Vancouver's business and financial circles. But deep down, they were quiet and conservative people. It looked like a story of a successful retired banker and his wife enjoying the rewards of years of hard work. But as we know, appearances can be deceiving because when investigators later began examining the months leading up to their disappearance, they found a picture that wasn't nearly as straightforward as it first appeared. Nick had spent 35 years at the Bank of Montreal before retiring in January of 1994 at the age of 55. By then, he had developed a reputation as a sophisticated businessman who understood investments, markets, and how money moved through the financial world. Retirement, however, didn't seem to slow him down. At the time he disappeared, Nick was serving as a director of TurboDyne Technologies, a California-based company whose shares were traded on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. His job was to look after the corporate budget and set up evaluations for the company's anti-pollution device. To understand this case, it's important to understand the environment Nick was operating in. Because during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Vancouver Stock Exchange had a reputation unlike almost any other market in Canada. Vancouver's House Street became known for speculative penny stocks, high-risk ventures, aggressive deal making, and fortunes that could be made or lost almost overnight. For some people, it was a place of incredible opportunity. And for others, it was a place where money disappeared just as quickly as it arrived. And Nick wasn't just observing that world from a distance. Before retiring from the Bank of Montreal, he had worked closely with some of the Vancouver Stock Exchange's most well-known and influential players. Names like Murray Pesam, Harry Mole, Nelson Scalbania, and Herb Capose regularly surfaced in accounts of Nick's professional life. Now, if those names don't mean anything to you today, they were a big deal in Vancouver during the 1980s and early 1990s. Murray Pesham was perhaps the most famous stock promoter in Canada at that time. He was known as the king of the Vancouver Stock Exchange, and he built a reputation, making and losing fortunes through speculative mining and resource ventures. Nelson Scalbania was a flamboyant businessman and investor who became famous for buying professional sports teams, including the NHL's Atlanta Flames, and later bringing them to Calgary. He was known for taking enormous financial risks and living larger than life. Harry Mole was a businessman and financier who later became associated with the collapse of the Pine Ridge Capital Group, one of the largest financial scandals in British Columbia during the early 1990s. And Herb Capose was a prominent entrepreneur, restaurateur, and businessman whose influence stretched across Vancouver's hospitality, entertainment, and investment circles. These weren't ordinary clients. These were men who flew in private jets, owned luxury properties, moved millions of dollars, and regularly made headlines. Nick reportedly socialized with them. He shared meals at one of Vancouver's most exclusive restaurants and entered high-profile events. He went on fishing trips with them to Sonora Lodge, boxing matches in Las Vegas, and was even a guest at Murray Peasons' weddings aboard a luxury yacht. From the outside, it appeared that Nick had a front row seat to a world of wealth, influence, and opportunity. But by all accounts, Nick was known to be straight as an arrow. Kaposi even stated that if Nick won money at a poker game, he would claim it on his income tax. But there was another side to that story. Because despite the circles they moved in, reporters later suggested that Nick and Lisa were not nearly as wealthy as many people assumed. Nick's salary at the Bank of Montreal was reportedly around $80,000 to $85,000 a year. Their North Vancouver home was heavily mortgaged, and court documents later indicated that they were about $70,000 in credit card debt. Lisa continued working as a hairdresser, working six days a week at Yokoi Hair Design, and then took clients in the home as well. And unlike some of the wealthy businessmen Nick associated with, the couple's vacations were often spent at a timeshare property in Maui, rather than luxury estates or private resorts. And honestly, I think that contrast is important because it raises an uncomfortable question. Were Nick and Lisa genuinely living a comfortable life within their means? Or were they trying to keep up with the Joneses with a world that operated on a completely different financial level? It's impossible to know for certain at this time. But if financial pressures were building behind the scenes, it could explain some of the decisions investigators would later find so puzzling. In April of 1994, just four months before they vanished, Nick and Lisa had made a sudden trip to the Cayman Islands. What stood out to investigators wasn't simply the destination, it was the secrecy. According to reports, the couple didn't tell friends or family where they were going. Instead, they simply said that they had to leave town for a few days. And that's another detail that seems small until you place it beside everything else, because this wasn't how Nick normally operated. According to his daughter Tanya, he was usually open about his life, his work, and his travel plans. Yet here he was taking an international trip and apparently telling no one where he was headed. It was reported that Nick had even called Tanya prior to leaving for the Cayman Islands to tell her that he probably wouldn't have been able to call her on her birthday, which was extremely bizarre behavior, as he didn't give an explanation as to why he couldn't either. In the Cayman Islands, the couple reportedly opened a bank account and deposited approximately $50,000 worth of stock. CBC News also reported that they had wills prepared during that trip. In the six months leading up to the disappearance, several people noticed Nick becoming increasingly guarded. Conversations that once came easily became more vague. Information that he would normally have shared suddenly seemed off limits. It was subtle, but it was noticeable. And looking back now, it's difficult not to wonder what was happening behind the scenes. Because whether Nick was dealing with financial pressures, business concerns, or something else entirely, the people closest to him sensed that something was different. They just didn't know how significant that difference would eventually become. As investigators began digging deeper into Nick's life, they uncovered several possible sources of pressure that may have been weighing on him in the months before he disappeared. One involved a court case in which Nick had reportedly been scheduled to testify against a former tennis partner accused of stealing $100,000. Some wondered whether his involvement in the case might have placed him in a difficult position. Police leader downplayed that theory, however, stating that Nick was considered only a minor witness. Still, it was another thread investigators felt compelled to examine. There were also questions surrounding Nick's connections to Vancouver's financial world. Investigators explored possible links to the collapse of the Pine Ridge Capital Group, a major financial scandal of the early 1990s, in which millions of dollars reportedly disappeared after the company failed. Nick had previously served as a personal banker for Harry Mole, the founder of the Pine Ridge Group, who later relocated to the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands had already surfaced elsewhere in the investigation, making the connection difficult to ignore. Then there was the case of Fred Hoffman. Hoffman, an accountant who reportedly had business dealings with Nick, had disappeared several years earlier. Around the same time, approximately $10 million belonging to clients also vanished. One investor from Seattle reportedly lost millions after being introduced through those financial connections. And according to later reports, that investor also became unreachable after Nick disappeared. Now, whether any of these events were connected remains unknown. But together, they paint a picture of a man whose business and financial relationships extended into a world far more complicated than most people realized. Over the years, investigators and private researchers examined countless theories. Some believed Nick may have become entangled knowingly or unknowingly in money laundering connected to organized crime. Others suspected mounting financial pressure may have pushed him towards drastic decisions, but no theory was ever proven. But one detail from the day before the disappearance has continued to stand out. On August 9th, Nick attended a funeral. Whose funeral it was I couldn't find in any of the reports. But according to later accounts, he seemed deeply upset afterwards, and witnesses recalled seeing him distraught and speaking about leaving town. At the time, those comments probably didn't seem significant, but looking back, they take on a very different meaning. The following day was Wednesday, August 10, 1994. It was the last day anyone could confidently place Nick and Lisa Massey alive. That afternoon, Lisa was working at her hair design place when she mentioned a phone call Nick had recently received from a businessman in California. According to Lisa, the man claimed he wanted to invest $10 million into one of Nick's business ventures. He made a plan to meet up with Nick that evening over dinner and to send a limousine to pick him up from his home. The caller reportedly told Nick that they had met years earlier while Nick was working at the Bank of Montreal. Yet Nick couldn't apparently remember him at all. Lisa's co-worker, Teresa Pham, later recalled that Lisa seemed uneasy about the situation. And yeah, honestly, that was always been one of the strangest details of this entire case. Because if someone called you out of the blue offering $10 million and claiming to know you from years earlier, wouldn't you want to know exactly who they were? And I would be asking a lot of questions. Yet, despite decades of investigation and media coverage, investigators have never publicly identified this businessman. No one has ever come forward claiming to be him. And which leaves open a possibility that investigators have never been able to rule out. Was there ever a businessman at all? Originally, Nick intended to meet the man alone, but later, however, he called Lisa and asked her to join him after learning the businessman planned to bring his wife. Nick made an 8:30 p.m. reservation at their favorite Polynesian restaurant, Trader Vic's, inside the Weston Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbor. Tommy Chang, the dining room supervisor, who knew the Masseys as regulars, reserved a table beside the window overlooking the harbor. It should have been a completely ordinary summer evening. Vancouver was in the midst of its annual fireworks celebrations, and the couple reportedly had been invited to watch the fireworks with some friends that evening, but instead they declined so that they contend the meeting with the businessmen. Cole Harbor would have been bustling with people, enjoying one of the warmest nights of the year. Restaurants would have been swamped, super busy, and the seawall was crowded. People were gathering to watch the fireworks over the water. And somewhere in the middle of all that, Nick and Lisa were preparing to meet someone who may hold the key to this entire mystery. At some point that evening, Nick called the restaurant and said that they would be delayed. But by 9:30 p.m., the reservation was given away because Nick and Lisa never arrived, and neither did the mystery businessman that they were supposed to meet. Trader Vicks actually ended up closing down in 1996, two years after the Massey's disappearance. And this is where I keep finding myself coming back to the same question: Who was this mystery businessman? Because if this man was real, then he may be one of the most important people in this entire case. Think about it. According to Lisa, this was the reason they were going out that evening. A businessman from California, supposedly wanting to invest $10 million into your company. He claimed he knew Nick from years earlier, and a meeting was arranged, a restaurant reservation was made, and then Nick and Lisa disappear. If that businessman existed, investigators would almost certainly have wanted to identify who he was. Because if he was real, another possibility emerges. What if the meeting itself was a lure? What if someone knew Nick's financial background and knew that he was involved in the Vancouver investment world and used the promise of a massive investment to get him somewhere alone? And if that's what happened, was Nick the target? Or was it him and Lisa? Of course, there's another possibility. What if the businessman never existed? And honestly, that theory is just as unsettling. Because if there was no businessman, then why tell people? About him, why make sure that your co-workers knew about what was happening with the dinner reservations, etc.? One possibility is that Nick and Lisa were creating a story so that people would remember later, like establishing an alibi before disappearing. If that was the case, then the businessman wasn't a real person at all. He was just a character in a story. But even that theory has problems, because if Nick and Lisa were planning to disappear voluntarily, why leave behind your passports and your beloved cat spider? There's just way too many loose ends that were left behind. But that's what makes this case so frustrating. Because almost every theory explains some of the facts, but none of them explain all of them. The businessman could have been a lure, or he could have been an invention. The dinner meeting could have been real, or it could have been part of a plan. There's another detail in this case that I've gone back and forth with repeatedly. According to a witness interviewed later, Nick and Lisa were seen at the West and Bayshore's garden lounge between approximately 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. on August 10th. The witness said they appeared relaxed, they shared a bottle of wine, and they both ate hamburgers. Nick was reportedly dressed in a jogging suit. And on the surface, that sounds like an important sighting, especially on the day that he was supposed to be having dinner at Trader Vic's. But the more I think about it, the more questions I have. First, there is the issue of memory. The witness wasn't reporting a dramatic event that stood out at the time. They were recalling what appeared to be an ordinary evening after Nick and Lisa had already disappeared. And we know from countless investigations that memory can be surprisingly unreliable. People misremember dates, they confuse one day with the other, they merge separate events together. So one possibility is that the witness genuinely saw Nick and Lisa, but not necessarily on August 10th. And if that's the case, then one of the most important sightings in this investigation may not actually belong in the timeline at all. But if the witness was correct, there are still things that don't quite fit. Remember, Nick and Lisa were supposedly preparing to meet a businessman who was talking about investing millions of dollars. It's the kind of meeting that you would expect someone to take seriously. Yet, according to the witness, Nick was wearing a jogging suit. Now, I don't know about you, but a jogging suit is not what comes to mind when meeting a man who's going to be investing $10 million into your company. I would have assumed Nick and Lisa would have dressed up for that occasion. Then there's another question. If Nick and Lisa were already at the Bayshore complex, why didn't they just go to Trader Vicks? The Garden Lounge and Trader Vicks were essentially next to each other. They weren't across the city, they were already right there. Yet despite having a reservation waiting for them, they never showed up. Instead, Nick reportedly called to say that they were running late. Which to me sounds like the Massies were still at home and possibly waiting for that limousine that was supposed to pick them up. The fact that their car was still sitting at the home suggests to me that they never left their home willingly. But that's just my opinion. I am sure if this mystery man was calling Nick's phone, investigators would have gone through that information and tried to find out who this man was. Unfortunately, more than 30 years later, we still don't know. And that's what makes this sighting so frustrating. Because if it's accurate, it may represent the last glimpse of Nick and Lisa before they vanished. And if it's inaccurate, then we may not know where they spent their final known evening at all. The next morning was Thursday, August 11th, 1994. This was Lisa's 39th birthday. At approximately 10 a.m., Lisa used Nick's cell phone to call his workplace. A co-worker named Leon Noak answered. Lisa told him Nick would be out of town for a few days and would call later. According to Noak, he was on a call on the other line, so he quickly let her go, but stated that she sounded calm. Nothing seemed unusual. A short time later, Lisa also called her employer at Yoy Koi Hair Design and explained that she needed time off because of a court matter and would not be returning until Tuesday. Again, nothing about the conversation appeared unusual at the time. About 30 minutes after speaking with Lisa, Leon Nowick attempted to return the call, but both Nick's cell phone and home telephone went directly to voicemail. Investigators later determined that the cell phone calls had connected through a tower serving the Bowen Island area, placing the couple somewhere between Bowen Island, Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver, or Highway 99 that morning. Somewhere in that corridor, Nick and Lisa were alive, but within hours, they would seemingly disappear forever. As the years passed, efforts to trace the couple's financial activity continued. Nick's son Nick Jr. eventually hired a private investigator, Ozzy Caban, to follow the money trail leading to the Cayman Islands. According to reports, investigators discovered that funds appeared to have been transferred into lawyers' trust accounts and invested there. But even that avenue ultimately led nowhere. Since the day they disappeared, there have been no confirmed sightings of Nick and Lisa. They also have not accessed their bank accounts or credit cards. There was no ransom demands. There was no evidence that they are alive. But there's also no conclusive evidence that they are dead either. The investigation continued, but with each passing year, the trail grew colder. Eventually the families were forced to confront a reality that they had spent years hoping to avoid. In 2001, Nick's children Tanya and Nick Jr., along with Lisa's sister Loretta, filed a court petition asking a judge to legally presume Nick and Lisa dead so that their estate could finally be settled. It's difficult to imagine what that decision must have felt like. Not because they necessarily had answers, but because they didn't. After seven years without contact, sightings, financial activity, or any indication of where the couple had gone, the family was left trying to navigate a situation that existed somewhere between hope and grief. The court declaration provided legal closure, but it did not provide answers. And more than three decades later, those answers still have not come. In July of 2019, Nick's children stood alongside members of the North Vancouver RC and P during the press conference asking the public for help. By that point, the reward for information had been increased to $50,000. And what struck me about that press conference was the position investigators had reached after decades of work. Investigators publicly stated they believed Nick and Lisa had likely been killed for reasons unknown. After examining every theory, every financial lead, every possibility that the couple had disappeared voluntarily, investigators no longer believed Nick and Lisa had simply walked away. Yet despite that belief, there have been no major breaks in the case. There's been no arrests, no remains, and no definitive explanation for what happened after August 10, 1994. Which leaves us with the same questions investigators have been asking. What happened to Nick and Lisa Massey? If Nick and Lisa somehow survived and started over somewhere else, Nick would now be in his late 80s, and Lisa would be in her early 70s. An entire lifetime has passed since they vanished. Their children have become grandparents, families have grown older, and yet the mystery remains exactly where it was in August of 1994. Unsolved. I hope that one day they will get the answers that they are so desperately searching for and get the closure that they deserve. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Nick and Lisa Massey, investigators are asking you to contact the North Vancouver RCMP at 604-985-1311 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. That's it from me today. I'll be back in two weeks with a new episode. Don't forget to subscribe or follow me so you don't miss an episode. Until next time, stay safe, stay aware, and stay curious. Bye.