Police seek help on year-old murder case

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This article was published 22/02/2017 (3530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With no arrests made a year after a 41-year-old Winnipeg mother and grandmother was found dead in her rented home, police are still trying to map out what she did and who she saw during her last three weeks alive — a timeline they hope could lead them to a suspect.

Marilyn Rose Munroe, 41, was found dead Feb. 22, 2016 in the North End home she rented at 298 Pritchard Ave. — an address police now say appears to have been connected to sales and use of methamphetamine. When and how she died have not been released as the Winnipeg Police Service’s homicide unit continues to investigate her death — one of two incidents from the past year the homicide unit considers unsolved.

Investigators have interviewed more than 70 people about Munroe’s death, homicide unit Sgt. Wes Rommel said on the one-year anniversary of the case Wednesday.

“Our goal is to bring justice and to find out what has happened for that person, for that person’s family and for the community, ultimately. And I can tell you the members of our unit do everything we can to make that happen. It’s not always the result, but I mean, we certainly put forth the effort that we need to identify the persons responsible in most cases, and that’s our hope in this case,” he said.

“Anytime we haven’t progressed after a year, it’s certainly indicative of a challenge for us. I can tell you that with Marilyn, she was known to a lot of people and there were a lot of people associated to the address where she was living prior to her death and where she was ultimately found.”

On Wednesday, for the third time since Munroe died, police made a public appeal for help in the case, asking anyone who saw her between Jan. 31 and Feb. 22, 2016 to come forward. She was last seen alive on Feb. 12, in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Powers Street, wearing several layers of sweaters and carrying a plastic bag. She’s described as an indigenous woman about five-foot-six, 130 pounds with long dark hair.

Rommel said police have no information to suggest Munroe was involved in drug trafficking, only that the house she was living in appeared to have a connection to the meth scene. Neighbours had previously told the Free Press she lived there with her boyfriend and another couple. Police had received a call from someone she knew reporting that she was injured.

Three days after she was found dead, nearly 100 of Munroe’s friends, family and supporters gathered at a candlelight vigil in her memory. Vigil organizer and Bear Clan member Cheryl James said Munroe is not forgotten a year later.

“From what I understand, she was a really beautiful person and she brought a lot of life wherever she went; it was like that really good energy,” James said.

“For myself and the way that I see things, when people are taken from us in a violent way or when they go missing, they’re taking special gifts that Marilyn had, that she brought to our community. Now we’re missing not only those gifts that she had, but her.”

Police have been working with Munroe’s family throughout the investigation, Rommel said, and have “made progress,” but haven’t yet made any arrests.

“The timeline really is becoming the most important for us in terms of people who had last seen her or had contact with her around that time,” he said. “It’s very important in terms of us learning a history of what she was doing, where she was and who she was associating with. Those pieces, I think at this point, are the most significant if we can get in touch with those individuals.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay