When his family home near Rotary Stadium in Abbotsford went up for sale a few years ago upon his parents’ divorce, A.J. Sidhu couldn’t bear to see it go.
It was where he had so many fond memories of growing up with his sister and their little brother, Manvir, who everyone called “Munny.” A.J., 10 years older, had changed Munny’s diapers when he was a baby, and thought of him almost as his own child.
When Munny hit his teens, the two forged a strong brother bond, with A.J. often counselling and guiding his spirited sibling. A.J. looked forward to seeing what the future held for Munny.
That day has never come.
Today (March 30) marks the 10-year anniversary of Munny’s disappearance. He was 17 years old – and just three months shy of his graduation from W. J. Mouat Secondary – when he went missing.
To this day, there have been no solid leads to the question his family so desperately wants answered: What happened to Munny?
“It’s still a puzzle,” says Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald.
On the evening of March 30, 2006, Munny (in photo at left) returned home from hanging out with friends, and spoke briefly with A.J. and A.J.’s wife before asking his mom, Kashmir, to make him breakfast the next morning.
He was last seen going to his second-floor bedroom at 10:30 p.m. At approximately 7:30 a.m. the next day, Kashmir went to Munny’s room and found his bed empty and his blinds and window open.
The bed had been made up to look as though someone were in it. Munny’s wallet, passport, eyeglasses and contact lenses were all left behind.
A.J., now 37, recalls the panic in his mom’s voice that morning. Munny was a good kid who always checked in with Kashmir if he was going to be gone, and she immediately knew that something was wrong.
A.J. tried to reassure his mom that Munny had just gone out for the evening and would be home soon; he was an athletic kid who often exited the house by leaving through his bedroom window and jumping to the ground.
“It wasn’t like he was sneaking out. It was more of, ‘I don’t need a door,’ ” A.J. laughs.
A.J. and his mom began calling Munny’s friends, and discovered that many of them had received texts from Munny’s phone number, saying that he was on his way to India.
But A.J. says those messages were written in a tone and style that were unlike Munny’s, and the family doesn’t believe he would go on a trip without informing them.
The family reported Munny’s disappearance to police, who soon discovered surveillance video at Abbotsford Airport of a person they believed to be Munny.
A.J. said everyone in the family thoroughly reviewed the footage, and all ruled out that it was him. There have been no further leads since that time.
A.J. says the circumstances have taken a toll on the family. Every time they hear a news report about a found body, they wonder if it’s Munny. Every time they hear about a missing person, it dredges up their pain.
“That’s the hardest part – not knowing. There’s no closure whatsoever.”
A.J., a rap artist who runs an independent record label called Thuggish Records Inc., said the first couple of years following Munny’s disappearance were the worst. His mind would continuously play out the scenarios of what might have happened to his brother, and he turned to alcohol, losing his driver’s licence in 2006 for five years when he passed out at the wheel while impaired. He feels fortunate that he did not hurt himself or anyone else, and he stopped drinking after that.
After his parents’ divorce, A.J. bought the family home and now lives there with his wife, his 14-year-old daughter, and son, who, in his high school graduation year, is at precisely the same age Munny was when he went missing. His mom lives there half the year, and spends the other half in India, while his dad lives elsewhere in Abbotsford.
A.J.’s son, who has fond memories of his uncle, has taken over the bedroom that used to be Munny’s. His son feels at peace in there, A.J. says.
The family believes that someone has information about Munny’s disappearance and hopes that, after 10 years, they will no longer be able to withhold it.
“There is an ounce of hope that hopefully something good comes out of it, but I’m not stupid. I know there’s a very, very high percentage of a chance that he’s no longer around,” A.J. says.
If his brother is no longer alive, there will be no funeral until they have proof, he says.
“I’ll never go there until there is some evidence of what happened.”
Munny’s disappearance remains an open file with the Abbotsford Police Department (APD). Anyone with information is asked to call the APD at 604-859-5225 or text abbypd (222973).