Police scold private eye over Facebook posts relating to homicide investigation

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This article was published 01/05/2023 (862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A private investigator has drawn a rebuke from Winnipeg’s police chief over social media posts about the discovery of a woman’s partial remains in South Point Douglas last month.

Police are concerned the Facebook posts by Janie Duncan, which contained drawings of two people and details not verified by officers, could taint the homicide investigation.

Some of the posts were shared in groups which had more than 10,000 or 20,000 members.

“The private investigator… she’s been in the community a long time. I don’t always agree with the way she conducts her business,” Chief Danny Smyth told reporters at an unrelated event Monday.

“I would ask for caution before we start to reproduce stuff that she’s been publishing. She’s not in on the (inner workings) of the investigation.”

Police spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon later told the Free Press the information from the private eye “is not related” to the investigation into the remains.

Smyth suggested the posts could lead to “a lot of misinformation” in the community

“I would just ask for more caution before we start running with some of her theories,” he said.

Police ignored possible leads: private eye

While she acknowledged the information could be unrelated to the homicide, Duncan disagreed with the notion her work could interfere with the police investigation.

She accused the Winnipeg Police Service of ignoring her when she tried to report information directly, including sketches of a woman and a man which were based on an alleged sighting.

“I hope they will follow up with the evidence,” Duncan, president of Winnipeg-based Duncan Investigations, said in a phone interview last week.

The sketches were not sanctioned by police.

“I would say that sharing composite drawings that have not been vetted by investigators within the police service, especially something as serious as a homicide, is irresponsible,” said McKinnon.

Progress being made: chief

Body parts belonging to a woman were found in a wooded area next to the Red River on April 15.

The man who made the discovery told the Free Press the remains were sealed, package-like, in orange plastic.

On April 18, Sgt. Wade McDonald, a member of the homicide unit, said police had not yet identified the woman, who didn’t have any upper or lower teeth.

It was unclear Monday whether police had since identified her.

Smyth, who was away from the city for two weeks, said he had not received a recent update from investigators.

“I understand they’re making some progress, and in due course — we’re pretty good at releasing public information,” he said. “We’re not at that stage yet, but I understand they’re making progress.”

Duncan started looking into the matter after she shared the WPS’s description of the woman in an April 20 Facebook post.

One of the replies was from a woman who claimed to have seen a female with a similar appearance in November.

The woman, an artist, drew and posted the sketches in the comments section. Duncan then shared the drawings on her page.

She later published photos of dentures someone allegedly found April 23 about three kilometres from the riverbank.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca