‘All of us need to stand together’: community gathers after woman’s remains found near river By: Chris Kitching Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023 Last Modified: 8:08 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023 Updates

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The discovery of remains of an unidentified woman next to the Red River in Winnipeg has put community members “on edge” and retraumatized families of missing and slain females.

A gathering was held Wednesday night at Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre in the North End to light a sacred fire and offer support to those affected by the city’s latest homicide.

About a dozen people had gathered by 6:30 p.m. Some embraced one another, shedding tears and sharing food and coffee. Others huddled around a sacred fire that burned outside.

“This is a difficult time, it’s heavy and it’s scary,” said Jewel Pierre-Roscelli, a Dakota woman. “My immediate thoughts go to who is this person? What were their circumstances?”

Little is known about the woman, whose partial remains were found in a wooded area next to the river, near Curtis Street and Higgins Avenue, on Saturday afternoon.

While police have not announced her ethnicity, Pierre-Roscelli fears she was Indigenous.

“As Indigenous people, we are all indirectly affected by this,” she said, fighting back tears. “It’s hard not to think of how that could be me. If I go missing, then what? That’s it and I am just another statistic.”

Saturday’s discovery was the latest in a long list of recent traumas that have affected many in Winnipeg, she said.

Only weeks ago, she was here to grieve the death of 33-year-old Linda Beardy, who died after climbing into a garbage bin shortly before its contents were collected by a truck, police said this month.

The MMIWG2S+ implementation committee hosted the Ma Mawi gathering for people of all backgrounds.

“We have such a high volume of loss and unsolved cases in Manitoba. People often re-experience trauma,” said committee member Sandra DeLaronde.

“It’s important for them to know that they are not alone, that they have a community that loves and supports them. All of us need to stand together and support each other.”

A South Point Douglas resident who found the remains has said they were sealed, package-like, in orange plastic, a few metres from the Red. They were metres below a gravel path used by cyclists and pedestrians.

On Tuesday, the Winnipeg Police Service’s homicide unit issued an appeal for information to help identify the woman and notify her family.

Police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said Wednesday detectives are following up on tips and other information received since the news conference.

Investigators believe the woman was more than 20 years old and between five-feet and 5-5 tall, with a slight build and short, dark hair.

Her ethnicity is not known.

She had a caesarean section scar and no upper or lower teeth, which police believe were missing before she died. Both of her ears were double-pierced.

There’s nothing to suggest the case is linked to other homicide investigations, police said Tuesday.

No one has been charged.

Somewhere, there is a family who doesn’t know their loved one has died, DeLaronde and NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine noted in separate interviews.

“It’s something that no family should go through,” said Fontaine. “This woman was loved. She was loved by her child or her children, and her family.”

Fontaine and DeLaronde said the death is having an impact on families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

DeLaronde said it was like a “gut punch” when she learned of the incident.

“I would be shocked if it didn’t impact the greater community, just the magnitude of loss in the city over the last few years, and the rate that this loss is occurring,” she said. “You don’t, as a community, get a chance to just breathe.”

Fontaine said the homicide has put the community “on edge,” with feelings of despair, anger and sadness over the death of another woman in Manitoba.

“This is happening so much that I sit there and wonder, do people think this is normal?” she said. “This is not normal. It’s not normal for women to go missing and be murdered at these levels.”

Some families are still waiting for closure or looking for relatives who disappeared, noted Fontaine, NDP spokesperson for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

After so much loss and trauma in the community, people are conditioned to automatically think the victim in such a case is Indigenous, said the MLA for St. Johns.

As she left work Tuesday night, Fontaine had a chilling thought: “Another killer is walking free among us.”

“There are multiple individuals who walk among us who have murdered Indigenous women and girls,” she said. “That keeps me up at night because there are so many unsolved cases.”

This, said Fontaine, affects the psyche of Indigenous women and girls who already feel unsafe.

Anyone with information about the homicide or surveillance footage that may assist police is asked to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477 (TIPS).

— with files from Tyler Searle

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching