Risky lifestyle links 28 victims

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2012 (4826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do a 46-year-old white man and a 15-year-old aboriginal girl have in common?

Both are subjects of the joint police task force Project Devote investigating 28 cases involving missing or slain Manitobans.

The RCMP-Winnipeg Police Service task force gave its first public update Friday.

It announced it’s identified 20 homicides and eight missing-person cases linked by one factor — the individuals were all at a high risk of becoming victims of violent crime.

Each had substance- or alcohol-abuse issues, was transient, had mental-health issues, worked in the sex trade or hitchhiked, said Project Devote spokesman RCMP Cpl. Miles Hiebert.

“Gender and ethnicity are not the issues here,” said Hiebert.

Neither is age. The slain and missing Manitobans range in age from 15 to 46.

Fifteen-year-old Cheryl Duck was found dead, face-down in a field near the outskirts of Winnipeg in December 1987.

William “Billy” Weinbender, 46, had a history of drug and alcohol abuse that led him to hang around with people who took advantage of him. He lived in an apartment in the North End and was last seen on June 6, 1994, outside the Seven Oaks hospital emergency department with his arm in a sling.

Debra Deane Richardson, 17, went missing from Gimli in October 1972 after she was dropped off at the highway so she could hitchhike into Winnipeg. Her family hasn’t heard from her since.

The Manitoba integrated task force for slain and missing women was announced in August 2009 and has reviewed 84 investigations in which foul play was suspected. Project Devote has also reviewed 112 cases of slain and missing men. Criminal profilers at the RCMP’s behavioural sciences branch in Ottawa and the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System centre have worked on the cases.

In the cases of 28 missing and slain women, the only link the task force has established is a risky lifestyle. And after going over thousands of contacts, tips, pieces of evidence and analyzing more than 140 DNA samples, there is nothing to indicate a serial killer is responsible, Hiebert said.

“At this point, we have no physical evidence to link more than one person to these crimes.”

The task force is looking at cases that go as far back as 1961. The beaten body of Jean Mocharski was found on the ice under the Alexander Docks on a Saturday morning, March 18, 1961. The 43-year-old woman was last seen at a bar in the North End the previous night.

Irma Murdock, 32, went missing in June 2000, but her friends aren’t giving up hope.

“Twelve years is a long time but I’m still hoping Irma will be found,” said Murdoch’s friend, Susan Caribou.

Caribou’s niece is slaying victim Tanya Nepinak, 31, whose body has never been found. Alleged serial killer Shawn Lamb has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death and those of two other aboriginal women. It’s alleged Nepinak was slain Sept. 13, 2011.

The bodies of Carolyn Sinclair, 25, and Lorna Blacksmith, 18, were found wrapped in plastic near garbage bins. Police said Sinclair was killed Dec. 18, 2011 and Blacksmith was slain Jan. 12 of this year.

On Friday, Project Devote officers wouldn’t comment on any details connected with Lamb’s case.

The head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Friday the task force needs to focus more on aboriginal women.

At least 18 of the 28 cases the task force is investigating involve aboriginal women, Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said in a news release.

The police probe is limited in scope and “does not directly address the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women,” he said.

Nepinak said aboriginal people are over represented in the investigations, and he said there should be a stronger link between aboriginals and Project Devote.

Aboriginals should be represented on the task force’s executive steering committee, he said, and victims’ families and communities want the task force to be accountable to them.

Police contacted victims’ families across Canada to update them before announcing Friday the task force was focusing on 20 slain and eight missing Manitobans, Hiebert said.

Project Devote has a dedicated staff that has tripled in size, with the addition of 15 people, he said.

It’s made up of 18 police officers — 10 Winnipeg police and eight RCMP, two civilian RCMP analysts, three RCMP data personnel and one RCMP administrative support person.

To date, there have been no arrests.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Project Devote tip line at 1-888-673-3316.

 

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca