A founder of an increasingly-popular Ottawa music company has gone missing, as has $600,000 from their recent festival.
Police are investigating the disappearance of 26-year-old Nick Vachon, one of the founders of DNA Presents.
The company has been bringing big names in the EDM (electronic dance music) scene to the city, including the recent Escapade Music Festival at the Ottawa Stadium June 30 and July 1.
When organizers went to get the rest of the money from the weekend, they said they found an empty safe.
“(Tuesday) afternoon . . . we came to do the final counts of the weekend’s proceeds,” said Michael O’Farrell, the other co-founder of Escapade.
“Our accountant and the stadium group president went to open the safe and noticed that all the cash proceeds were gone.”
O’Farrell said that money came from things like alcohol sales at the festival, which drew 15,000 people.
Organizers said while the missing money didn’t hurt the audience experience, it could harm them in the future as they were depending on that cash to pay some of the artists.
They said they still plan to put on Escapade in 2013.
Police are expected to issue a search warrant for Vachon Thursday morning.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Stefan Keyes
