‘Willing to walk with us’ Bear Clan a vital support for exhausted families frantically searching for missing loved ones; Winnipeg police praise ‘incredible partnership’ with citizen-led group By: Tyler Searle Posted: 2:27 PM CST Friday, Jan. 12, 2024

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This article was published 12/01/2024 (991 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Where is Leah Keeper? Is she warm and well-fed? Freezing? Starving?

Is she alive?

These are the questions that plague the family of the 32-year-old mother of two — a woman whose smile and gentle demeanor may have left her vulnerable to people wishing her harm, and who has been missing since late July.

“I want to have hope, and we are doing our prayers, but all these things are going through your mind,” aunt Marilyn Courchene said by phone Thursday. “I’m hoping to find her safe, but to me, that doesn’t paint a bright picture.”

Keeper was last seen in Winnipeg, near Salter Street and Selkirk Avenue, on July 25 but wasn’t reported missing until Nov. 21. She is 5-3 in height, with a thin build, medium-length black hair and brown eyes.

Courchene fears for her niece’s safety, saying she lives with addictions and may have been threatened by a man who was providing her with methamphetamine, her drug of choice, before she disappeared.

While it is not uncommon for Keeper to go for weeks without contacting family, the amount of time that has passed is highly unusual. She has not picked up any of her social welfare cheques since July, Courchene said.

“Leah fell in somewhere with the wrong crowd, and that’s where things started happening where she was disappearing at different times,” she said. “That drug got hold of her. That drug was stronger than family can be.”

Courchene and her sister Beverly — Keeper’s mother — hope to finds answers Saturday, when they take to Winnipeg streets with members of Bear Clan Patrol.

The volunteer group of searchers are to meet at Bear Clan’s 584 Selkirk Ave. location at noon and canvass the North End neighbourhood, distributing posters and speaking with community members, seeking information about Keeper’s whereabouts.

“What they are doing makes our heart feel a little bit at ease, that there is someone out there that cares and is willing to walk with us to find a loved one, whether they are alive or not,” Courchene said of the search.

“Without (Bear Clan), I don’t know where we would be. Would it be just my sister and I walking the streets, putting up posters? They have alleviated some of this darkness for us. They’ve helped us. We are not walking down the streets crying for our loved one.”

“What they are doing makes our heart feel a little bit at ease, that there is someone out there that cares and is willing to walk with us to find a loved one, whether they are alive or not.”–Marilyn Courchene

The citizen-led organization assists in locating hundreds of missing people annually, acting as a liaison between families, communities and authorities.

The group is a valuable resource frequently tapped by Winnipeg Police Service, said Sgt. Andrea Scott, who leads the city’s missing persons unit.

“They are an additional set of eyes and ears for us. There are often times where people don’t feel comfortable speaking with police, but they will provide information to Bear Clan. We speak with them daily, sometimes multiple times per day,” Scott said.

“It’s an incredible partnership.”

The rate of missing persons reports in Winnipeg has declined in recent years, with WPS logging just under 5,000 reports in 2023, down from roughy 8,500 in 2022, and a high of 10,000 in recent years, Scott said.

Although the police sergeant could not provide exact statistics Thursday, the unit boasts a clearance rate of more than 90 per cent — thanks, in part, to contributions from Bear Clan.

“There are often times where people don’t feel comfortable speaking with police, but they will provide information to Bear Clan. We speak with them daily, sometimes multiple times per day.”–Sgt. Andrea Scott

Last year alone, the organization partnered on 210 missing persons reports with the WPS. Of those, it helped in locating 156 — a 74 per cent clearance rate, police data show.

Youth in the care of Child and Family Services are among the demographic most often reported missing, Scott said, adding other factors such as mental health and personal behaviours can also contribute.

She attributed the decline in missing persons reports to recent joint efforts by CFS and police to preemptively connect at-risk youth with supports and resources.

The WPS and Bear Clan have collaborated on search efforts for several years, but the partnership was first officially acknowledged in July of 2022, when Bear Clan launched its police-supported missing persons Facebook page.

The webpage was designed to be a community resource, accessible to the public and functioning as a public alert bulletin and providing information on how to submit reports and tips.

Full-scale searches often involve a slate of police resources, including foot patrols by police, cadets and search-and-rescue teams, as well as aerial searches by drones and helicopter, Scott said.

While technology and human resources are effective at finding missing people in emergency situations, connecting with community members who know where and with whom missing people generally spend their time provides crucial leads.

That’s where Bear Clan comes in.

“It’s totally about meeting people on their own level, being non-judgemental, non-violent and non-confrontational,” said Angela Klassen, Bear Clan co-ordinator and community liaison. “We are here because we care.”

Klassen, who has worked with the organization for nearly six years, leads many of the group’s search efforts. When families ask for Bear Clan’s help in finding missing loved ones, she is often the first person they speak with.

Every search begins with an in-depth interview, during which family members relay their loved one’s last known location, physical description, age, WPS file number and any extenuating circumstances about their lifestyle.

From there, Bear Clan publishes a photo and missing persons alert on its Facebook page; usually within an hour.

“It’s incredibly difficult. Both physically and mentally. It’s an extremely emotional time for the families,” Klassen said.

“You can’t help but to pick up some of that energy. You become involved and get to know the family, you see the anguish in them and it pulls at your hearts strings. You want to help them.”

While many cases are resolved quickly, there are others in which no evidence is found. Those are particularly difficult, Klassen said.

The WPS is currently investigating nine unresolved missing persons cases — including Keeper’s — dating to 2020.

An additional 22 long-term cases, opened between 1986 and 2019, are also considered active but unresolved.

For families with missing loved ones, never finding closure is a frightening prospect, said Britt Moberg, whose father has been missing since Dec. 12.

Earl Moberg, 81, disappeared from his home in the River East area at around 6 p.m.

He is 5-7 in height, with a medium build, short white hair and a white beard. He was wearing either a dark blue or green parka when he was last seen, the WPS said.

Several searches by police, family and Bear Clan members have since turned up no trace of the elderly man, who suffers from advanced dementia.

After flying to Winnipeg from her home in Victoria, Moberg found herself traipsing through frost-blown fields and snow-covered pathways, tracing and retracing her father’s last known steps.

“When I first got here, it was a situation I have never found myself in or would want to be, and I was just feeling emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted,” she said.

“Community members were messaging me asking how to help, and I was just thinking, ‘I just got here. I don’t even know how to organize something like that. I’m stressed and exhausted, as are all my family members.’”

Bear Clan has assisted in organizing at least four ground searches for Earl, covering ground throughout Bunn’s Creek Centennial Park, Kildonan Park and kilometres of walking paths and riverbanks near Chief Peguis Trail.

Although her father has not been found, support from the group has had a profound impact, she said.

“After a certain period of days, you start thinking you’re likely looking for your father’s (remains). The chances of him being alive are not high, so it’s psychologically very stressful to be in these situations. I don’t think anybody should be through something like that alone,” Moberg said.

“Just to have people who have done these kinds of searches before… It was a huge relief to be able to have people who were able to help organize that. I think they do an incredibly important service and I am just thankful.”

The Moberg family continues to search for Earl, and has asked Winnipeg residents to check their property lines and out buildings, saying he may have sought shelter from the cold.

Last week, Pattison Sign Group donated the Moberg family a week of advertising on digital billboards throughout the city in an effort to raise awareness about the missing senior.

Meanwhile, the family has continued searching on their own.

On Wednesday, Moberg and her brother installed a sign of their own near Chief Peguis Trail and Henderson Highway.

Like Keeper’s family, they hope the search for their loved one will soon end.

Police ask anyone with information helpful to the missing persons unit to call investigators at 204-986-6250 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca