Red Deer RCMP are asking for help finding Caleb Mathison, 14, who was last seen in Red Deer on Wednesday, August 5.
What he looks like
Caleb is five foot nine and about 170 pounds, with brown hair. He has a closely shaved head in the photo RCMP released, and was wearing a light green hoodie.
If you see him
Call Red Deer RCMP at 403-406-2300.
Tips can be left anonymously with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at p3tips.com.
Call police rather than approaching him. A 14-year-old who has been gone several days may not want to be found and may run, and a well-meaning approach can move him somewhere harder to search.
Where Red Deer sits
Red Deer is on the QEII between Calgary and Edmonton, which is why this alert is worth sharing well outside the city.
A 14-year-old who leaves Red Deer can be in either major centre in about ninety minutes. Missing youth files in the corridor routinely end with someone being found in a city they have no obvious connection to, because the highway makes it easy.
If you're in Calgary or Edmonton and you scroll past this, the photo is still worth a second look.
What might help
If you have a doorbell camera or dashcam and you were around Red Deer on August 5 or since, check the footage. That's often what gives investigators a direction.
Share the photo and description rather than a screenshot of them, so the details stay readable and people can copy the phone number.
RCMP have not said more
The release doesn't say where in Red Deer he was last seen, whether there are concerns for his health, or whether police believe he left on his own.
That's normal in the early days of a missing youth file, and it isn't an indication of how serious it is either way.
If you're a parent reading this
The August 5 date matters. Several days is long enough that RCMP have exhausted the usual checks, friends, known addresses, the places a kid normally turns up, before going public.
Police release a photo when the quiet search hasn't worked.
For anyone whose own teenager is going through something, Kids Help Phone is free and confidential at 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868. The Alberta Mental Health Help Line is 1-877-303-2642, 24 hours.
And if your child is missing right now, call police immediately. There is no waiting period in Alberta before you can report a missing person. The idea that you have to wait 24 hours is a myth, and it costs people time.
Sources:
Red Deer RCMP missing person alert, August 2026
Comments
Conversation