Three charged in slaying of Tootinaowaziibeeng woman who went missing in 2020

Mounties have arrested and charged three men in the slaying of a Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve woman who disappeared more than five years ago.

Melinda Lynxleg, 40, went missing on March 31, 2020, and was reported missing by her sister on April 16 of that year, Manitoba RCMP said in a news release Monday. Her body was found at an abandoned property in San Clara, a rural community about 350 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, on June 7, 2023.

Mounties arrested three men at their homes between Oct. 14 and Thursday. Billy Jay Lynxleg, 46, of Tootinaowaziibeeng, Kirk Kenneth Allarie, 42, of Roblin and Myles Malcolm Allarie, 38, of Russell are charged with second-degree murder and indignity to human remains.

The victim knew the men, who were all detained in custody, RCMP said.

“My sister Melinda did not deserve what happened to her,” Allison Lynxleg told the Free Press in a message before RCMP held a news conference at their Winnipeg headquarters Monday afternoon.

“Melinda was a human being, a mother, a daughter and my sister, who deserved to live.”

RCMP said in April that they were closing in on answers on the homicide case after new information brought “forward momentum” to the investigation.

“Thousands of hours have been spent looking for answers, including a complete review of the entire investigation,” police said that month.

Melinda Lynxleg had six siblings and six children. Her family previously described her as a strong and resilient woman who fiercely advocated for her children.

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She was last seen near Tootinaowaziibeeng, also known as Valley River First Nation, some 50 km east of San Clara.

“The last five years (have) been very tough for our family. It’s been a nightmare,” Sharon Lynxieg, Melinda’s mother, said in the release.

“These arrests will not bring Melinda back, but it goes a long way towards helping us heal. We are grateful the RCMP continued to look for the persons responsible for her death and brought them to justice.”

— with files from staff, The Canadian Press

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.