A full year of family milestones have passed since Michael Samdass, 41, went missing from his Stoney Creek home.

Hamilton Police say they have “exhausted all efforts” to locate Michael — and have been seeking the public’s help to find him for several months.

His close family members, including three sisters and one brother, have never stopped looking for Michael. And they’ve learned more than they expected to, discovering the surprising numbers of missing people and challenges of investigations where police forces and other organizations don’t communicate with each other.

Wandita Jodah, Reisha Dass and Leah Gerrard have seen how things can fall through the cracks.

Michael was picked up by Toronto police on September 4, 2019, apparently for an altercation with a homeless person, and held overnight. He was released from court, at College and Yonge streets, the next day and hasn’t been seen since. But it wasn’t the first time the system appears to have let Michael and his family down.

His sisters did not learn of the Toronto incident until they dug deeper into the case. Michael left his mother’s home on September 3, 2019, and hasn’t been seen by his family since.

Michael’s sisters described him as extroverted, charming, witty and thoughtful. He worked in a family home renovation and real estate business. He had attended Barton and Sherwood high schools.

As an adult, Michael played recreational soccer at Soccer World. Along with his sisters — as much friends as close family — he enjoyed local dance clubs.

It was as much as two years before his disappearance that his family noticed changes. Michael slowly became more introverted and solitary, even paranoid, while beginning to have violent outbursts.

The family didn’t know what caused these changes, but they were trying to find out. They even went to court to have Michael picked up for psychological assessment.

But Michael was released within two days. He returned to his mother’s house in Stoney Creek, and went missing a week later.

Michael turned 40 on Aug. 31, 2019, just a few days before family members last saw him.

His sisters said they don’t know why Michael went to Toronto in September 2019. They said he didn’t bring anything with him — like his cellphone, and they’re not aware of any bank or social media activity by him.

Hamilton Police Det. Const. Chelsea Knowles said investigators learned he made the trip to meet with “a professional where he has an expectation of privacy and due to that I do not want to release the specific details.”

According to police, Michael is 6-foot-3 with a thin build, black curly hair, brown eyes and a medium complexion. He has a scar on his left leg and knee and a tattoo on his left upper arm of a tribal design.

“He’s a tall guy,” said sister Reisha Dass. “You can’t miss him.”

But as the sisters have visited Toronto shelters to try to track Michael’s movements in the city, they found most people with whom they spoke hadn’t heard of the missing person, or seen his photo.

There’s been plenty of speculation and few hard facts about Michael and his movements since his interaction with Toronto Police and the court system in September 2019. The whole thing is obviously frustrating to his family.

His sisters say Michael doesn’t typically hold grudges. They don’t think he would stop talking to them after their efforts to get him help.

If he’s out there somewhere and doesn’t want to come home, they want him to at least let them know he’s alive and doesn’t want to be found.

If anyone else really knows what happened to him after he was released from court, the family wants them to at least let them know — even anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

The lack of solid information for so long is particularly difficult for the family. They’ve heard of cases where missing people have been found dead and buried, without any notification to their families.

“The system is failing these families,” Reisha said.

Michael turned 41 just over a month ago. His family marked birthdays, Christmas, Easter and other annual events since he went missing — but those milestones have not been the same without him.

In June 2020, Hamilton Police and Michael’s family made a short video sharing details of the case.

“We are a very close-knit family,” Michael’s sister Leah said in the video. “We’ve had our share of differences over the years but we’ve always worked through things. This is out of character for Michael and we’re trying to make sense of it all.”

Michael’s mother, Phalmattie, also makes a plea for help in the video.

“Michael, you know I love you. I love you more than I love myself,” she said. “This is a nightmare. Please call home Michael, please. I love you. Please, please anyone with information please call, call the police.”

If you have any information, contact Det. Const. Knowles by calling 905-546-2917 or Det. Sgt. Ben Thibodeau at 905-546-2907. To provide information anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit your anonymous tips online at http://www.crimestoppershamilton.com.