Missing woman slain: family

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This article was published 18/09/2009 (5918 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE family of a Portage la Prairie woman missing for more than a year is sure she was slain, and Mounties now agree.

Jennifer Catcheway, 18, went to Grand Rapids on a road trip with two male relatives in June 2008 and was never seen again. The father of the Portage la Prairie woman said family members, who have resumed the search, received information placing her at nearby Da­kota Tipi First Nation before she dis­appeared around June 19.

Dakota Tipi is about six kilometres southwest of Portage.

Wilfred Catcheway said he believes his daughter is no longer alive.

He said his family wants to find her body so they can have peace.

"I got off work so I could find my daughter," Wilfred Catcheway said.

"Once winter comes, there’s not much you can do."

This week, for the first time, RCMP D Division said they are treat­ing Catcheway’s disappearance as a homicide inves­tigation.

"While we don’t have her back, it is our belief that Jen­nifer met with foul play," said Sgt. Line Karpish, RCMP D Division spokes­woman.

Karpish said the last con­firmed sighting of Catcheway was in Grand Rapids on June 19.

She said Mounties are not involved with the current search.

Catcheway was last seen by family before she went on a trip to Grand Rap­ids, about 430 kilometres north of Por­tage, with her uncle and cousin.

Wilfred Catcheway said people have told him his daughter was at the re­serve after she returned from Grand Rapids.

Now, he said family and friends are dedicated to searching there for Catcheway’s body. Her father said the search party is covering about an eight­kilometre radius around the reserve.

Dakota Tipi First Nation Chief Cornell Pashe said it’s "possible" Catcheway was near the reserve around her death.

The First Nation has permitted the search party on their lands.

Pashe said he’s encouraged residents to participate with RCMP about if they saw Catcheway and provide state­ments.

He said around the time she was last seen there were two parties on the re­serve.

"It’s pretty tough to be in this pos­ition," he said.

Wilfred Catcheway said his family wants to bury Catcheway properly.

Jennifer Catcheway, who worked in a Portage fast food restaurant the time of her death, would now be 19 years old.

"I am convinced the law will take its course," he said.

Mounties said they currently have four investigators handling the case, including a lead investigator from the Serious Crimes Unit. The investigators are not assigned to the investigation full-time, said the RCMP.

The RCMP refused to specify if all the officers were from the Serious Crimes Unit.

RCMP recently struck a task force to investigate unsolved deaths of missing and murdered women like Catcheway. Mounties have released no numbers or names about the women who are in­cluded in the investigation.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca