‘Keeping her name out there’: family marks 15 years since Indigenous woman vanished

Time has stood still for the family of Amber Guiboche.

Monday will mark 15 years since the young Indigenous woman vanished without a trace — a painful milestone that brings no new answers, only the enduring heartache.

“I don’t think we feel like this case has moved, that anything has changed since Amber went missing,” said Kyrra Kematch, Guiboche’s niece.

“Basically, we’re still at the same place we were at the beginning,” added Selina Miller, a family friend who said Guiboche was like a sister.

Kematch said the family has attended many events over the years and continues to hold vigils in Guiboche’s honour. They once put up a large poster near the 7-Eleven where she was last seen, but it was eventually taken down.

“We’re the only ones consistently keeping her name out there,” Kematch said. “It should be more than us doing that. We’re never going to get closure for this or get justice for Amber if it’s only us working and we’re not getting anything from anyone else in the community.

“And it should be a community effort to help find these women.”

Guiboche, 20 at the time of her disappearance, had been socializing with friends in a home on Bushnell Street in Winnipeg’s Centennial neighbourhood on Nov. 10, 2010, before leaving around 11:45 p.m.

She walked to Isabel Street and William Avenue, where police say she was last seen getting into a pickup truck. The vehicle was spotted travelling southbound on Isabel.

Neither Guiboche nor the truck have been seen since.

She would have turned 35 on Nov. 5.

The most recent update from police came in 2017, when investigators said they were still looking for the pickup — a mid-1990s burgundy Chevrolet Silverado, extended cab, short box, a 4×4 decal near the rear, and the outline of the word “Chevrolet” across the tailgate.

“We want more communication with (police),” Kematch said. “The only information we’ve ever had is the same that’s been out in the media. I believe we should have other information.”

Police said last week there were no new developments in the case.

“I can confirm that the missing persons unit is still actively investigating the disappearance of Amber Guiboche,” Const. Claude Chauncy said Friday.

In 2014, police released a composite sketch of a person of interest in the case, along with an image of the baseball cap the man was wearing.

“There has to be something else,” Kematch said.

“It’s closure. We need closure,” added Miller.

Sue Caribou, whose niece Tanya Nepinak was last seen leaving her Winnipeg home on Sherbook Street in September 2011, says anniversaries never get easier.

“I just had my beautiful niece’s birthday on Oct. 10,” she said. “It doesn’t get any easier. People think that as the years go by, it gets easier. No. It gets harder every year, and it’s hard when you don’t have that closure.

“I even start seeing my loved one walking, but I’m only seeing things because I wish and have been praying for my loved one, Tanya Jane Nepinak. There’s times people give you that little hope to find and bring your loved one home.”

Shawn Lamb was charged with second-degree murder in Nepinak’s death in 2012, but the charges were later stayed. Her remains were believed to be in the Brady Road landfill, where a brief six-day search in 2012 ended without success.

The province is now planning a search at the Winnipeg landfill next month for the remains of Ashlee Shingoose, who was one of four Indigenous women slain by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

Investigators say Shingoose’s remains were placed in a garbage bin that was dumped at Brady.

Shingoose was previously known as Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe or Buffalo Woman, before she was publicly identified in March after police declared DNA found on a pair of her pants positively identified her.

Skibicki had been convicted of her killing before Shingoose’s identity had been revealed.

Shingoose, from St. Theresa Point First Nation, was 30 when she went missing, having been last seen near a downtown-area homeless shelter in March 2022.

Premier Wab Kinew has committed to the Brady search following the discovery of the remains of two of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki’s victims — Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — in the Prairie Green Landfill north of Winnipeg earlier this year.

Caribou, a staunch advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, continues to push for a renewed search for Nepinak’s remains.

“I’m still having meetings with Wab Kinew and staff about the Brady landfill search,” Caribou said. “The years only make it harder too, because people are not searching anymore for your loved ones. They are forgotten.

“As of today, I’m still praying and hoping that they will search for her at the Brady landfill after they search for Ashlee.”

Meantime, Kematch said her late father Kyle — who co-founded Drag the Red with NDP Minister Bernadette Smith — instilled in her a belief that everyone deserves to be found.

Drag the Red was formed in 2014 following the disappearance and death of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old Indigenous girl whose body was found in the Red River. The volunteer-led organization searches the river for the remains of missing people and evidence connected to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

“That everyone deserves to be brought home and buried, no matter what you did, who you are or what people think of you,” she said. “Amber deserves to be brought home. She’s somebody to somebody. She’s somebody to us.”

Despite the long years, Kematch said she still holds on to hope.

“There are always those cases where, after a really long time, these women are found,” she said. “They come home. Maybe she will come home. I’ve always had that thought.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the missing persons unit at 204-986-6250 or anonymously at Crime Stoppers 204-786-TIPS or winnipegcrimestoppers.org

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca