Charges laid in slaying of Tootinaowaziibeeng woman who went missing in 2020

Mounties have arrested and charged a man 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. Her body was found at an abandoned property in San Clara, a rural community about 350 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, on June 7, 2023.

“My sister Melinda did not deserve what happened to her,” Allison Lynxleg told the Free Press in a message.

“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.

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

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Allison Lynxleg said she wants to see anyone who was involved in her sister’s disappearance and slaying held accountable.

The RCMP will hold a news conference at their Winnipeg headquarters at 1 p.m. Monday, where it will reveal more information about the investigation.

Court records show at least one suspect has been charged with second-degree murder and improper interference with human remains. The male remains in custody, with his next court date scheduled in Dauphin on Nov. 25.

— with files from 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.