The family of a missing Indigenous woman says when police left them in the dark, community stepped in to search
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
CBC News: It started with a photo posted to Facebook in early March of this year about a missing 37-year old mother who had last been seen in downtown Winnipeg. Vivian Ketchum recognized her as Cindy, a family acquaintance.
With Cindy’s family in the northwestern Ontario city of Kenora — about 200 kilometres away — Ketchum decided to search for the 37-year-old Indigenous woman herself. Ketchum recalls the first search she did for the woman CBC is referring to as “Cindy” (not her real name — CBC is using a pseudonym because attempts to contact her for this story have been unsuccessful.)
Ketchum’s initial search spanned across Winnipeg’s downtown, Main Street and North End. She covered a long stretch of downtown Portage Avenue, “searching, talking to security guards and the police,” she said. “Bus shacks were a little bit scary to go into, but I went in there anyway.”
The next day, others joined Ketchum in the search. “We started going to even more scary places like bars late at night, sketchy apartment buildings that were occupied by possible drug dens, back alleys, [looking in] garbage bins,” said Ketchum.
Gina Mandamin, a relative of Cindy’s who lives in Kenora, became worried when she hadn’t heard from Cindy in days. Mandamin urged her family to immediately report the 37-year-old missing to Winnipeg police. “I just remember [police] … saying that we just need more phone calls, and then [they’ll] make a report,” said Mandamin. “What kind of answer is that?”
That response “just made me feel like she’s nothing. Like she’s just like a piece of paper on the floor,” she said. “It just made me feel hopeless — helpless. And that made me feel sad because … we’re just brushed away.”
Four years since the final report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, many families remain concerned that police aren’t properly searching for their loved ones.
That 2019 report made 231 calls for justice, including several relating to how police deal with reports of missing Indigenous women, girls and gender-diverse people.RELATED LINKS
- Report card: What progress have we made on the MMIWG inquiry’s calls for justice?
- These women’s lives were forever changed by the MMIWG crisis. Here’s how they say we can do better
- Only 2 of the MMIWG inquiry’s 231 calls for justice are complete. Here’s why that matters
CBC’s “Mother. Sister. Daughter” project tracked progress on those calls for justice, and found that just two have been fully implemented. Many haven’t even been started, CBC’s analysis found. Many families still feel left in the dark when they file a missing person report, saying police don’t follow up or keep them informed of what has been done to find their loved ones.
Police ‘just didn’t bother’: family
The Winnipeg Police Service would not comment on Cindy’s case. But in an email, Sgt. Andrea Scott from the missing persons unit wrote that “every missing person report is triaged and is as individual as the person being reported.”
A misconception still exists that families of missing people have to wait for at least 24 hours to report someone missing, despite there being no rules or protocols that say so — something that was addressed by law enforcement officials at the MMIWG inquiry. However, “we do have an expectation that some reasonable steps have been taken to locate an individual before they are placed on a national database,” Scott’s email said.
It just made me feel hopeless — helpless. And that made me feel sad because … we’re just brushed away.– Gina Mandamin
Cindy’s family had heard a rumour that she was at a hotel on Main Street, being held against her will, Mandamin said. She says they passed that tip on to police.
But it wasn’t clear to them whether police took their claim seriously, or whether officers followed up on their tip that she could be at the hotel. “They didn’t care, so they just didn’t bother [to look],” said Mandamin. The Bear Clan, a citizen patrol group in Winnipeg, helped the family search. ”[They] took [the family] to places where they know are all those trap houses and all that stuff,” she said.
Ketchum says she also gave police the tip that Cindy was at the hotel. “Every time we try to give them reasons to search, they would also give us excuses not to search,” she said.
Days after reporting Cindy missing, Mandamin’s family received a call from police saying she was at a shelter, but no additional information was given. They were never able to independently confirm she was at a shelter and say they were left in the dark about what exactly police were doing to locate Cindy.
Every time we try to give them reasons to search, they would also give us excuses not to search.- Vivian Ketchum
Almost a week after she had gone missing, her family got another call from police. “They said … ‘We found her at the Health Sciences Centre [in Winnipeg]. She’s sick with double pneumonia and … [a] kidney infection,’” said Mandamin. ”[My husband] called over there and she sounded really sick, really raspy sounding. But he was happy to hear [from her].”
Click on the following link to watch the video:
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/missing-person-mmiwg-community-helps
When the family finally connected with Cindy at the hospital, she said she had been at a hotel on Main Street, where she had been held against her will. Ketchum says she’s disappointed that police didn’t listen to the family, and it wasn’t until Cindy ended up in hospital that they took what the family had to say seriously.
“Police should have been there. They said she wasn’t considered a vulnerable person, but when you’re in that situation, you are vulnerable,” said Ketchum. “You can’t help yourself.… [When] you’re being held in a tiny room, I would consider that vulnerable.”
‘She’s a strong woman’
Mandamin says Cindy and her siblings had a difficult upbringing, losing both their parents at a young age. “They have that pain to carry. They never really knew their mom,” said Mandamin.
RELATED LINKS
“That’s a missing piece in their hearts, so I think they fill that gap with whatever they can, whatever addiction.” Despite struggling with addiction and a history of trauma, Mandamin says that Cindy is a person worth saving.
Watch Indigenous leaders and advocates in Winnipeg say the MMIWG crisis is a national state of emergency
Click on the following link to watch the video:
https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/missing-person-mmiwg-community-helps
When the family finally connected with Cindy at the hospital, she said she had been at a hotel on Main Street, where she had been held against her will. Ketchum says she’s disappointed that police didn’t listen to the family, and it wasn’t until Cindy ended up in hospital that they took what the family had to say seriously.
“She’s an awesome person.… She has an on-the-spot sense of humour — she’s just quick with things, like quick comebacks,” Mandamin said. “She’s a strong woman, with the stuff that I’ve heard [about her family history].”
Police response has changed: chief
One of the calls for justice in the MMIWG inquiry’s 2019 final report is for police services to standardize protocols and policies to ensure all cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are investigated in a timely way. It calls for a “communication protocol” with Indigenous communities to inform them of policies and practices of police services’ missing persons units.
It also calls for a national strategy, created through the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, to ensure consistent mechanisms for reporting missing Indigenous women and girls.
Watch: Manitoba to fund new unit to help bring home missing people
Long before the MMIWG national inquiry, many families said reports of missing Indigenous women and girls were being ignored by police. When Claudette Osborne-Tyo went missing in Winnipeg in July 2008, her family said her case wasn’t taken seriously by police, who labelled her a sex trade worker.
The family of Amber Guiboche, who was last seen in Winnipeg in November 2010, were initially told by police that she was probably out partying. Her body was never found. Jennifer Catcheway was last heard from in June 2008, on her 18th birthday, when she called her parents to say she was heading to their Portage la Prairie, Man., home to celebrate.
Her family never heard from her again.
After waiting a few days to report her missing, Jennifer’s mom, Bernice Catcheway, said police didn’t take her seriously. They told the family to wait a week or so, because Jennifer was probably just partying, Bernice Catcheway has said. Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth acknowledged that officers should not be making disparaging comments to families when they make a missing persons report, but says a lot has changed in how the police service conducts missing person searches.
A decade ago, families would report someone missing at a police station. Now, the Winnipeg Police Service is leading the development of a national missing persons unit, in collaboration with the RCMP and the Manitoba First Nations Police Service.
“We spend a lot of time trying to educate people and improve our reporting processes,” said Smyth. “We’re working right now towards doing that at a provincial level so that no matter where you’re reporting from in the province, you’re going to deal with the same tight unit.”
Winnipeg police take every missing person report seriously, Smyth said. “I think it’s important that we have an effective intake in that, and we did a lot of steps in the last 10 years to improve that process.”
‘We are just as valued’
Vivian Ketchum wants to see police make a concerted effort to start searching right away when someone is reported missing. She’s used to searching some of the worst spots in Winnipeg for vulnerable Indigenous women like Cindy. “I call us the ‘search community.’ We know these places. We know the community. We know the women. We know the reasons why it should be searched immediately,” said Ketchum.
With a bag of supplies — a flashlight, gloves, naloxone and food — Ketchum patrols her neighbourhood to make sure folks living on the street or squatting in abandoned houses are healthy and safe. She took CBC to a boarded-up house just steps away from her own home in Winnipeg’s West End, where she examined items left behind by people squatting in the house, including clothes, food packaging and needles.
There’s a metal fence around the house to keep people out, but Ketchum says that hasn’t stopped people from moving in. Weekly, she slips by the fence to check for signs of people living there. “I’ve seen evidence of a woman living in there — sandwiches, and there was a little diary written by her, and condoms and needles,” said Ketchum.
She says she doesn’t often see police searching the abandoned houses on her street. “Sadly, there are women that could be trafficked and dying in here and the police are not searching these areas as well as they should be.”
I call us the ‘search community.’ We know these places. We know the community. We know the women.- Vivian Ketchum
“Time is an important factor … because they could come to the city [and] they’re clean and healthy. Within a couple of days, they could be shot up with drugs, beaten, abused, raped many times. So their lives could be in danger … even within 24 to 48 hours.”
Many of those who are homeless in Winnipeg are Indigenous, and many struggle with addiction, mental health and a history of intergenerational trauma. It’s a point not lost on Ketchum — an Anishinaabe residential school survivor who says she often worries that one day, she could go missing.
“If I were white and blue-eyed, they’d probably start [searching] right away — they’ll be putting up posters,” she said.
Indigenous women are “just as important. We are just as valued,” said Ketchum. “We have family members just as worried and concerned about finding us.”
If you require support, you can contact Ka Ni Kanichihk’s Medicine Bear Counselling, Support and Elder Services at 204-594-6500, ext. 102 or 104, (within Winnipeg) or 1-888-953-5264 (outside Winnipeg). Support is also available via Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Liaison unit at 1-800-442-0488 or 204-677-1648.
Credits
Executive producer: Jillian Taylor
Producer: Donna Carreiro
Reporting: Stephanie Cram
Packaging: Caitlyn Gowriluk
Editing: Joff Schmidt
Photography: Prabhjot Singh Lotey
Videography: Trevor Brine and Warren Kay