Family of missing woman calls for independent missing persons office

“A lot of families are not heard even when they’re talking directly to the police,” Carson stated.

He said the office should be available for all families and not limited to those connected to MMIWG.

Carson said he was surprised to learn that a lot of the supports available to Indigenous families are not there for other people.

“They’re going through the same thing we’re going through if not worse because they have absolutely no support at all,” he said. “They’ve sold their house, they sold their car, they have sold almost everything to go on searches.”

Connecting with other families and sharing experiences has been helpful for the Poitras’. It was an idea supported by Sgt. Kathy Edwardsen who is in charge of investigating historical cases including missing persons and homicides for the Prince Albert Police Service.

It would be easy to get an overwhelming amount of information, as people go missing every day, some run away and some are just unhappy in their situation, Edwardsen said.

The more precise the information, the better the police response is, Edwardsen explained. For instance, a report of a body north of the city is fairly general and hard to follow up on.

“Narrow it down. We can’t just search north of the city, we need to narrow it down so OK, what did you hear north of the city?” she said.

In the non-criminal disappearances, the connections could result in finding people more quickly, just through information sharing.

Edwardsen agreed with the Poitras family that some witnesses would be more willing to talk to someone who is not in law enforcement.

“There’s been lots of tips but they’re very vague and we can’t just search all of Saskatchewan,” she said.

For the Poitras family, they continue searching because they must, and say that is something all of the families of missing people share.

“We can’t quit. We can’t quit until we find them,” said Carson. “I’ll speak on behalf of all families. They are not going to quit until they find their loved ones.”

The missing poster for Happy Charles. (submitted photo)

Meanwhile, Happy’s children are doing their best to keep their mother’s memory alive.

“I tell my son about my mom. He always wants to meet her,” said Marcia Bird, one of Happy’s daughters.

Aleisha Charles, a second daughter, said her mom was living with her for several months before she went missing.

Happy came to Prince Albert on April 1 and Aleisha’s house was one of her last stops.

“The last thing she said to me was ‘Things are going to better, my girl.’ I don’t know what she meant by that at the time. What she thought was going to happen, was that she was going to get into treatment,” Aleisha remembered.

Happy met two of her grandchildren before she disappeared at the beginning of April in 2017. She now has seven.

The last known images of her came from the security cameras at PACI school where she can be seen walking out of range. What happened after that remains a mystery.

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susan.mcneilpattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Family of missing woman calls for independent missing persons office

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