Mother of Hamilton’s Emily Bailey pleads for any new information on missing daughter

The mother of Emily Bailey, a young woman who went missing over four years ago, says she’s trying her best to hold onto hope that her family can get some closure.

She’s once again appealing for anyone with information to come forward, just days after police wrapped up their search of a central Hamilton home in connection to Bailey’s disappearance.

Police searched a home belonging to Bailey’s boyfriend’s brother and his girlfriend for three days last week.

Investigators haven’t yet said if they found anything of note at the house, and have yet to name any suspects in this case.

Bailey’s mom, Lori Bevan, believes there are people out there who know more than they’ve said.

“You can’t even explain it — it’s just been four years of hell, and I feel like we need something,” said Bevan. “We need closure. Somebody has to speak up — somebody knows something.”

More than four years after her daughter went missing, Bevan is again appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

WATCH MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Friend denies wrongdoing in disappearance of Hamilton’s Emily Bailey

Bailey was just 23-years-old the last time she was seen, on New Years Day of 2022, leaving the house she shared with her boyfriend on Weir Street.

Bevan believes she last spoke with her daughter on the phone a few weeks earlier to wish her a Merry Christmas — the mother and daughter weren’t speaking much at the time, after a falling out.

“I was trying to do the ‘tough love’ thing, which now I regret,” said Bevan, “I really regret that a lot.”

Bevan says her daughter struggled with drug addiction and periods of homelessness, which led her to lose care of her two young daughters, both of which moved in with family.

Bevan says Bailey loved her daughters more than anything, and was planning to go back to school just before she disappeared.

“I want Harper and Kinsley to know that their mom was loved and that she didn’t leave them,” said Bevan.

The missing person’s case was taken over by Hamilton police’s homicide unit in March 2022, with investigators saying they suspect foul play is involved.

Officers searched the home Bailey shared with her boyfriend, Jeff Johnson, in July that year.

WATCH MORE: Police execute warrant at Hamilton home in search for missing Emily Bailey

There had been few public updates in the case since then, until last week.

“It was a weird, overwhelming feeling,” said Bevan.

Police executed a search warrant over three days at a duplex home Stinson Street and Wellington Street South in central Hamilton, rented by the brother of Bailey’s boyfriend and his girlfriend.

“We’re here to search for Emily Bailey and any evidence in relation to her disappearance,” said Hamilton police Det. Sgt. John Obrovac on Wednesday.

Police haven’t said if they found anything inside the home and have not named any suspects in the matter, including the residents at the home that was searched.

Meanwhile, Bevan says she’s hoping for any information to turn up, because four-and-a-half years on, she says it’s getting hard to hold onto hope.

“I know we were told a lot that they need to find her and that would be the key thing to getting closure for this,” said Bevan. “I don’t know if we’re going to. I really — I want to believe we are, and I hold onto hope as best as I can, but hope sometimes it just feels like it’s withering away.”

CHCH News is still waiting to hear the results of last week’s search warrant.

WATCH MORE: Police spend second day searching Hamilton home for clues in finding missing Emily Bailey