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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Woman slain: police
Young mother found in lane
April Helen Hornbrook
Too many people are speculating about this granddaughter's death, Reg Hornbrook says.
A young woman found dead beside an abandoned building is the city's 28th homicide victim of 2011, police said on Sunday.
On Saturday morning, a passerby discovered 24-year-old April Helen Hornbrook's body in a back lane in the 700 block of Main Street. She was clothed, and lying near a weed-strewn trail that runs between a crumbling Main Street warehouse and a stretch of train tracks.
At first, police categorized the discovery as a "suspicious death." On Sunday, Winnipeg Police Service spokeswoman Const. Natalie Aitken announced investigators are now treating Hornbrook's death as a homicide, due to the undisclosed injuries discovered on the woman's upper body,
Beyond the report of injuries, police released few details Sunday about the investigation. They urged anyone who has spoken to Hornbrook recently, or who has any information about her activities on the night she died, to call Crime Stoppers at 786-8477.
Hornbrook was raised by foster parents in rural Manitoba for many years. After returning to Winnipeg in her late teens, she developed a warm relationship with some of her family members. "She used to come spend time with us," said the woman's grandfather, Reg Hornbrook. "She was a nice person. She was always nice to her dad."
She was also the mother to a four-year-old son who was not living with her.
Reg Hornbrook, who last saw his granddaughter about two weeks ago, said he doesn't know what might have happened the night that she died. But he is worried about the rumours flying around the community -- for instance, rumours that she was found stripped of her clothing, which police have denied.
"A lot of people are making up stories," he said. "I said, 'Don't make up stories. The police are doing their work.' "
melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 29, 2011 A5
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