Hope and closure: vigil honours 2007 homicide victim Saunders

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This article was published 30/01/2024 (610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cynthia Roulette remembers getting the phone call in April 2007, the day her granddaughter’s body was found in St. Ambroise, near Lake Manitoba.

Roulette was living in Calgary when Crystal Saunders, 24, was killed.

Seventeen years later, in Winnipeg, she thanked God and Creator the alleged perpetrator had been identified.

“We never ever thought this day would come, where we get justice and the guy is caught who murdered Crystal,” Roulette said Tuesday evening, at a sacred fire outside Ma Ma Wi Chi Itata Centre.

A crowd gathered outside the King Street organization to honour Saunders. Dozens of prayers for the slain Indigenous woman were said around the fire, before red and yellow pouches of tobacco were thrown into the flames.

On Monday, RCMP announced police in Vancouver had arrested and charged 42-year-old Kevin Charles Queau with second-degree murder.

DNA evidence had identified the former Winnipeg resident as a suspect in 2014, and a further 14-month investigation led to his arrest Jan. 27, police said.

The break in the cold case was praised by Manitoba Indigenous leaders, including Southern Chiefs’ Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels.

“I express my gratitude to all who dedicated themselves to finding answers for the family of the late Crystal Saunders,” Daniels said in a news release Monday.

Daniels further called for the 231 calls for justice contained in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to be implemented. “We must work towards creating a safer society for our women, girls, two-spirit, and gender-diverse people.”

Alaya McIvor, a friend of the Saunders family, is holding on to hope the arrest will open the door to more breakthroughs in similar cases.

“Those who are still missing are found and brought back to their relatives. Brought back so we can honour their spirit, their life, their beauty,” she said.

McIvor described Saunders as a strong Indigenous woman with “hopes and dreams just like everyone… And, unfortunately, she lost her life to violence.”

As a MMIWG community advocate, McIvor wants to see people in positions of power implement change from the grassroots level to prevent any more senseless killings.

Anita Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Infinity Women Secretariat, affiliated with the Manitoba Métis Federation, said the impact of the arrest this week will be far-reaching.

Many families are hoping, too, to one day see justice for a loved one whose killing remains unsolved, she said. “For our community, for our families, it does give them hope.”

Supports are being made available to Saunders’s family and anyone affected by Monday’s announcement of charges, she added.

For Roulette, news of the arrest brought her more than hope.

“Now we have closure, the final closure, and now she can rest in peace,” she said. “It doesn’t bring her back to us… but we know she’s at peace.”

— with files from Chris Kitching

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca