Woman pleads for tips on who killed her brother, 15 years after his death

The grieving sister of a man killed in Thompson 15 years ago is pleading for anyone who has information to call RCMP — or for those who did it to turn themselves in.

“I just would like to have some closure,” Maven Hall said Friday, in an emotional interview on the anniversary of the death of her older brother, Jason Nunn.

Nunn, 25, spent the night out with friends at Element Restaurant and Lounge, a now-closed business on Commercial Place in the northern Manitoba city, and was last seen at about 2:30 a.m. on April 24, 2011.

He had waited for a cab to arrive for Hall’s close friend, to see her off safely in the cold night, before leaving, Hall said.

She believes he was walking home when he was attacked. Nunn was found dead hours later, at about 6:15 a.m., in a parking lot behind the Juniper Centre on Nelson Road, a short distance from where he lived with his mother and father.

No one has been charged in his killing in the years since.

Manitoba RCMP said Friday investigators believe someone has the “necessary details that will allow the homicide to be solved and for Nunn’s family to find closure.”

RCMP implored that person or people to step forward, as did Hall, now 37.

By 2011, Hall had moved to Gillam, northeast of Thompson, to raise her young family. She learned of her brother’s death there on Easter Sunday.

The family had settled down to watch a movie, after her three kids hunted for chocolate eggs, and Hall ignored a call from her parents’ phone number. After she got a second call, she knew something was wrong.

“I was just in shock, hearing my older sister tell me that he was found dead,” Hall said, through tears. “I dropped the phone and I just ran upstairs and screamed, because I didn’t want my kids to see.”

Nunn had another sister and a younger brother, Hall said. They grew up in Leaf Rapids, also in northern Manitoba, but the family moved to Thompson after the mine in Leaf Rapids closed.

Nunn stayed to finish high school in Leaf Rapids, his sister said, before he settled in Thompson with his parents. He got a job at the mine there and was training to work in its refinery.

“He was so proud of himself,” Hall said. “His first paycheque, he was blown away — he had never made that amount of money before.”

She’s been reflecting in the years since on the memories she has of her brother, and of the many she wasn’t able to make because of his death.

He threw a party for her 12th birthday, when he was a teenager, said Hall. Nunn set up their family’s basement for the party with a DJ table, a strobe light and all sorts of decorations. “He gave me the best birthday, ever,” she said.

Her brother had friends everywhere and made connections easily; he loved to play guitar and spent long hours learning songs.

It makes her sad to tell stories to her children about their uncle. Her oldest was five when Nunn died, and he only has one vague memory of him now, while her two younger daughters can’t remember him at all.

“I tell them stories about their uncle and it breaks my heart, because I know how much my brother loved them, and how awesome of an uncle he would have been to them,” said Hall.

“Knowing that he never got to have children of his own — I’m still grieving his passing, and I’m still grieving the moments that never happened.”

RCMP major crimes investigators asked anyone with any information on Nunn’s killing, no matter how small the detail, to call their office at 204-984-5604, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or give an anonymous tip at manitobacrimestoppers.com.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca