March holds out hope for justice

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This article was published 19/07/2019 (2539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eight years to the day Cara Lynn Hiebert was found beaten to death in her North End home, her teenage son led an hours-long peaceful march in her memory down Winnipeg sidewalks to the steps of the provincial legislature.

Even after all these years without a break in the case, Malik Harb, 17, said he still holds out hope the person or people responsible for his mother’s murder may one day be brought to justice.

“I’m very hopeful. I just hope that one day it will happen, sooner rather than later,” Harb said Friday.

Hiebert was 31 years old and a mother of four when she was killed.

Construction workers discovered her body in the basement of her home at 506 Redwood Ave. on July 19, 2011. It is believed she was murdered the night before, her family said Friday.

In a press release at the time, police said she was found with “upper body injuries consistent with being physically assaulted.”

Roughly 70 people gathered outside the Redwood Avenue home Friday at noon, before marching for two hours to the Manitoba Legislative Building.

Upon arrival, speeches were made and a short rally was held in her honour. Marchers held homemade signs with her photo on them, sang an honour song and shouted “We love you Cara” loud into the air in unison.

Mitch Bourbonniere, a local community organizer with the Mama Bear Clan and other grassroots groups, said he believes there have been few to no leads in Hiebert’s murder and that her case has long since gone cold.

Nonetheless, Bourbonniere said he’s convinced there are people in Winnipeg with information about what happened to her that could prove vital to the police investigation.

“We want to bring consciousness and information. Someone out there knows something… You can’t have a gruesome murder at the doorway of a house in the North End without someone knowing something,” Bourbonniere said.

“(The demonstration) is absolutely heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time. We take great solace and the family takes great solace and the community does today, for the huge show of support we’ve had this afternoon.”

Hiebert’s death marked Winnipeg’s 23rd slaying of 2011, the year when the city set its record for homicides — 41.

In an email to the Free Press, a spokesman for the Winnipeg Police Service said the investigation into Hiebert’s slaying remains open.

Anyone with information about her death can contact homicide unit investigators at 204-986-6222.

Her friends and family have previously said there was significant blood found at the scene and her home appeared to have been ransacked.

Harb said that although his mother led a difficult life and struggled with addiction, she was a kind and generous soul who was always looking to help others in need.

“It’s certainly bringing me a little bit of closure to the situation… It was definitely mixed, I was happy, I was sad, but at this point my mindset is the whole point of this walk is to celebrate her life,” Harb said.

“We’ve been mourning too long for her, we’ve been hurting too long for her, now it’s time to live for her.”

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe