CANADA CANADA - 83 Missing & Murdered women of Edmonton, Alberta

[Woodland]

Have read a number of times in the last few days that Project Kare started gearing up in June 2003 and was operational in November 2003.

Using the recent lists of found victims (the same names come up time and time again) and removing cases after Melissa Munch (last one found before June 2003) that would be 16 bodies and one very large list of missing women in order to reach 83 cases and possible victims. That's huge, even adjusting for any errors.

Were any ever located and removed from the 83? Are any not found to date and removed from the 83? How many are Kare looking for with some degree of certainty that they will show up deceased in Sherwood Park or Leduc area?

Hoping we can find some answers.

 

[dotr]

Have read a number of times in the last few days that Project Kare started gearing up in June 2003 and was operational in November 2003.

Using the recent lists of found victims (the same names come up time and time again) and removing cases after Melissa Munch (last one found before June 2003) that would be 16 bodies and one very large list of missing women in order to reach 83 cases and possible victims. That's huge, even adjusting for any errors.

Were any ever located and removed from the 83? Are any not found to date and removed from the 83? How many are Kare looking for with some degree of certainty that they will show up deceased in Sherwood Park or Leduc area?

Hoping we can find some answers.

Thanks for all the great links and info, enjoyed that dancing video too!

 

[Woodland]

Here is Brianna Torvalson's story. Spoiler alert - it may open the door for conspiracy theorists.

Brianna was age 21 and found 21 Feb 2008 in a snowbank at the end of a private driveway - she appears to have been very visible as opposed to buried or partly buried. Not sure how long she had been there - overnight? Longer? In the lists recently gathered, I have her missing date as 7 Feb 2008 - unable to recreate that at the moment with the number of sources needed for all missing and found dates.

Brianna was not well-known to police, did live a high-risk lifestyle and was not registered with Project Kare (DNA sample not submitted as many high risk women of Edmonton have done). Her phone led police to identify her almost immediately.

Brianna was found shortly after Svekla's trial began (charged with 2 murders at the time, later found guilty of only 1). Brianna's murder is disturbing, leaving her the way she was found was disturbing and the timing was disturbing to all involved.

'... beside a driveway on Township Road 534 near Range Road 220, about 15 kilometres east of Sherwood Park.

... His trial continues in Edmonton next week.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=c2441d27-1252-4d9c-8cc3-c0aff4e9efd0


Unike the majority of women whose unsolved homicides were already being investigated by Project Kare, Torvalson was found alongside a driveway people pass daily.

... could have been in the snow bank beside the driveway overnight. RCMP could not say Friday whether they believe she was killed near the driveway, or whether her body was left there.

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=c575ba8b-bf54-4ee2-a669-13f6b2b9bbb3


While the deaths of street prostitutes in our city have become all too commonplace, Torvalson's murder still came as a shock. The discovery of her body coincided a little too neatly with the beginning of the trial of Thomas Svekla, ...

... Is there another serial killer out there, who's mad that Svekla might be getting credit for his work, and who wants to send a message that he's still at large?

Or maybe we've all just watched too many TV shows, maybe we're just all too desperate to find meaning in the mayhem.

Sadly, we'd rather believe in the existence of one bogeyman than accept the horrible notion that there might be a dozen different men out there who think nothing of killing women and discarding their bodies like trash.

http://www.canada.com/story.html?id=c575ba8b-bf54-4ee2-a669-13f6b2b9bbb3

 

[dotr]

Imo, there are a number of serial predators involved with these cases and possibly other murderers, who dump their victims in places where sk's are known to leave them.
At one time, i did not think it plausible that sk/sps, would copy and try to outdo one another, but considering that mass school shooters are known to do it, why wouldn't mass strangling, beating s. assaulting killers do it too?
imo.

 

[Woodland]

This is definitely a tough one dotr.

In Ontario there is a small town named Caledon - as you will well know - where a number of bodies from mainly the TO area have turned up. No real link to any of them to date - it's just easy to get to from TO and a body can be concealed for a certain amount of time - depending on the killers wish and motive. It worked for previous killers, so the 'new' ones seem to use it as well.

No rhyme or reason to pin down. It just is.

 

[Woodland]

Linking this article from the Edmonton Journal dated 27 Oct 2005 for future reference.

A 33 year-old woman was found in a field east of Edmonton (Sherwood Park) Friday night - 21 Oct 2005 - LE know who she is but did not release her name. She was registered with Project Kare but was not reported missing. She had been there an estimated 1 or 2 weeks.

"The victim has been tentatively identified as a 33-year-old female ...

The woman has relatives in Quebec and British Columbia, Anderson said.

The article also states -

The victim is the second sex-trade worker to be found slain in the past three weeks.

The latest victim was discovered about 1.5 kilometres north of Township Road 534, immediately east of Highway 21, 10 kilometres south of Fort Saskatchewan. Five women have now been dumped in the same general area in the past eight years.

http://www.canada.com/national/feat....html?id=88cbb3f4-2430-4f52-9f6e-07be17041df2

Unable to locate any victims found in Oct 2005. Both names possibly held at request of family?

 

[Woodland]

6 victims between 2000 and 2003

Kelly Dawn Reilly 23 - last seen 15 Jan 2000 Edmonton, found 27 Jan 2001 Villeneuve gravel pit northwest of Edmonton

Edna Bernard 28 - last seen 22 Sep 2002 Edmonton, found 23 Sep 2002 east of Leduc on fire

Debbie Lake 29 - last seen 4 Nov 2002 Edmonton - at home went out to use a payphone, found 12 April 2003 Micquelon Lake (south of Leduc)

Monique Pitre 30 - last seen 24 Nov 2002 at the Transit Hotel in Edmonton, found 8 Jan 2003 south of Fort Saskatchewan (north of Edmonton) trauma to entire body

Melissa Munch 20 - last seen 10 Jan 2003 Edmonton, found 12 Jan 2003 Ardrossan (north of Sherwood Park)

Syliva Ballantyne 40 - last seen 27 April 2003 Edmonton, found 7 July 2003 Leduc

Syliva Ballantyne should be Katie Sylvia Ballantyne.

This list should also contain -

Deanna Marie Bellerose 29 - last seen 9 Sep 2002 Edmonton, found 16 May 2012 near Morinville, AB about a 30 minute drive north of Edmonton. Deanna's sister Ginger Lee 26, was found bludgeoned to death on 25 April 2001 in an abandoned hotel in Edmonton. She had been there about 2 weeks. Ginger is one of the few cases with a conviction - Richard Douglas b c 1950.

http://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profile/deanna-marie-bellerose

 

[dotr]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/skel...ng+years+found+east+leduc/11010926/story.html
April 27 2015


"Q: What is Project Kare now?

A: In recent years, according to the RCMP, Project Kare has expanded into an umbrella term for certain cases involving the missing persons unit, historical homicide investigators and the crime-prevention unit.

Q: How many missing people are Edmonton police agencies currently investigating?

A: In Edmonton, there are 84 historical missing persons files dating back to 1971. A dozen of those are aboriginal men and 10 people, including Delores Brower, are aboriginal women".

 

[Woodland]

Slightly o/t but goes to the heart of this matter imo.

The RCMP have been a wonderful support and lifeline for my family. Although they cannot give us any details about the ongoing investigation, they have continually assured us that it is a very active investigation and still a top priority. I believe that the RCMP will make an arrest.

The Victims of Homicide Support Society of Edmonton has helped me through my journey by providing support and realistic expectations about what to expect on this roller coaster of grief.

Above is a sister of Jolene Cote, speaking about Jolene's murder 13 Oct 2011 in Edmonton.

http://www.vohconference.ca/speakers-bio/

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Cote-Edmonton-found-deceased-October-13-2011

You just don't hear Berg's words enough within the families of the known victims on this thread. Sad, very sad imo. Fwiw - plenty of blame on both sides imo.

 

[Patience]

http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/rcmp-seeks-your-help-bring-our-aboriginal-women-and-girls-home
The RCMP seeks your help to bring our Aboriginal women and girls home

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is looking for your help in solving outstanding cases of missing Aboriginal women. For 10 days in October, we will highlight specific cases of missing Aboriginal women and girls across Canada via social media who are featured on the Canada's Missing website.
Now in its third year, the campaign will run from October 5th until October 14th, 2015. The RCMP will share information on these women's cases on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. The month of October was chosen to coincide with the Sisters in Spirit Vigil held by the Native Women's Association of Canada each October 4th. Each case on the Canada's Missing website is profiled with a poster that provides information about the missing individual and the circumstances of the case and can be printed for distribution.
How the public can help:

• Visit the canadasmissing.ca to review the cases and to learn how to submit a tip
• "Like" the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Facebook to see information about the cases and share them
• Follow @rcmpgrcpolice on Twitter to read about and retweet information on the cases

This initiative is an opportunity for communities across the country to be involved by sharing information that may generate tips for the investigating officers. With the public's help we hope to bring these women and girls home.
In June, the RCMP released an Update to its 2014 National Operational Overview on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women, the most comprehensive and accurate account to date of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. This update found that Aboriginal women continue to be overrepresented among Canada's murdered and missing women. This issue has become a priority for the RCMP, as we serve over 600 Aboriginal communities across Canada.
The RCMP also introduced its National Missing Persons Strategy in September of 2014, which standardized the investigative process. A revised Missing Persons Policy has incorporated investigative best practices and establishes mandatory communication schedules with families.

 

[dotr]

Aug 2015
rbbm.
http://www.lfpress.com/2015/08/04/serial-killer-fears-grow-after-another-body-found-near-edmonton

"RCMP Staff Sgt. Gerard MacNeil, with Project KARE, told the Edmonton Sun in 2012 that he's convinced a serial killer is still on the loose, despite convictions in some of the cases.
-
snip>- --- --

Some of the missing and murdered sex workers that may be linked to a serial killer in the Edmonton area:

AUG. 2010 -- Amber Tuccaro reported missing. Her remains were found on a rural property near Leduc on Sept. 1, 2012.

MARCH 2006 -- The body of Bonnie Joan Jack is discovered by two teenagers. The 37-year-old was last seen March 2, 2006, at the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton.

APRIL 2005 -- The burned body of Charlene Marie Gauld, a 20-year-old heavy drug user who was last seen a week earlier, is found by an oilfield worker near Camrose.

JAN. 25, 2005 -- Samantha Tayleen Berg, 19, is found frozen to the ground under a mound of snow.

JUNE 2004 -- The body of Rachel Quinney, 19, is found dumped in Strathcona County.

MAY 2004 -- Delores Dawn Brower, 33, was last seen attempting to hitch a ride. Her remains were found in April.

MAY 9, 2004 -- Corrie Ottenbreit, 27, is last seen leaving her husband and child to work the streets. Her remains found in Leduc County were identified last week.

JULY 2003 -- The badly decomposed body of Katie Sylvia Ballantyne is found in a Leduc County field, nearly three months after she was last seen. The 40-year-old was a crack addict and worked as a prostitute.

APRIL 2003 -- The skull of Debbie Darlene Lake is found by a man south of Miquelon Lake, 70 km southeast of Edmonton. The 28-year-old mother was last seen on Nov. 4, 2002, when she left her home to use a pay phone.

JAN. 2003 -- The body of Melissa Munch is found in Strathcona County. The 20-year-old worked as a prostitute and was known to steal from her johns. She was last seen earlier that month.

JAN. 2003 -- The body of Monique Pitre is found in a field in Strathcona County. She had disappeared on Nov. 25, 2002, after getting a ride from a roommate to a hotel.

SEPT. 2002 -- The body of Edna Bernard, 28, is found burned near Leduc. The 28-year-old worked as a prostitute to feed her cocaine habit, and was last seen alive by one of her regular customers who dropped her off in Edmonton a few hours earlier.

SEPT. 1, 1997 -- The remains of prostitute Caralyn Aubrey King, 23, discovered in a canola field near Strathmoor Way in Sherwood Park.

OCT. 1989 -- The body of Bernadette Lynda Ahenakew, 22, is found in a ditch. She was last seen Sept. 27, 1989, when she left her common-law husband to turn a trick for drug money.

SEPT. 13, 1988 -- The half-naked body of prostitute Georgette Flint, 20, is found just west of Elk Island Park".

 

[dotr]

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/killer-stalking-edmonton-prostitutes/

"For the record, police decline to talk about a serial killer. Their mantra, for nearly a year, has been that, yes, there is one person who may be responsible for more than one of the murdered prostitutes. But there could be many killers out there, they say, and investigators must remain open to all possible scenarios. In the wake of the latest grisly discoveries, Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko went a step further. "I'm not going to speculate on whether it's a serial killer," said Cenaiko, a former Calgary police officer who has been briefed on the evidence. "But I would think there's one individual responsible for a number of the murders."

Bill Pitt, who teaches criminology at the University of Alberta, thinks everyone is skirting the obvious. "What we're dealing with here," he says, "is a targeted group of individuals who are taken from the street, murdered and then dumped off." All the bodies were found in rural sites, several of them in a cluster just east of the city in Strathcona county, an area patrolled by the RCMP (Edmonton has its own municipal police force). "It's almost," says Pitt, "like the killer is saying to both police forces, 'I'm smarter than you. I'm better than you. I can dump them in your backyard and you can't catch me.'"

 

[Patience]

I agree that he thinks he's smarter and I think he is taunting them. I believe he thoroughly enjoys the suffering of others. The victims, their families, the community and LE. IMO

Look at this attempted abduction as it appears that someone got away.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/331316341.html?mobile=true
Ladysmith RCMP are investigating the attempted abduction of a young Ladysmith woman by a middle-aged man.

*snippet
She was about to enter the car when she changed her mind, but the man grabbed her and tried to pull her into his vehicle. She escaped and ran to a nearby home to call police.
The man is white, aged late 30s to early 50s, had short, dirty blond hair, brown or hazel eyes, was clean shaven, and under six feet in height.

 

[dotr]

I agree that he thinks he's smarter and I think he is taunting them. I believe he thoroughly enjoys the suffering of others. The victims, their families, the community and LE. IMO

Look at this attempted abduction as it appears that someone got away.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/331316341.html?mobile=true
Ladysmith RCMP are investigating the attempted abduction of a young Ladysmith woman by a middle-aged man.

*snippet
She was about to enter the car when she changed her mind, but the man grabbed her and tried to pull her into his vehicle. She escaped and ran to a nearby home to call police.
The man is white, aged late 30s to early 50s, had short, dirty blond hair, brown or hazel eyes, was clean shaven, and under six feet in height.

Will keep eyes open for any other attempted abductions, especially if they have a dog in the vehicle.

"A 23-year-old woman was walking on Doole Road Sept. 14, at about 1 p.m. when she was offered a ride by a man driving a white or silver, four-door vehicle with a black dog inside."

 

[dotr]

These must be the 7 women whose deaths were linked by profilers, imo
rbbm

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=b3ef6ddb-01e0-4294-b854-99cf81b1ffa8


"Edmonton prostitutes have been disappearing since 1989, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2002 that police organized a team to look for patterns among the murders. They sent 10 cases to RCMP criminal profilers, who said five of the prostitutes likely had been murdered by the same person, and that person probably would continue to frequent and kill prostitutes."

Snip>

"During three days of heated interrogation that followed Svekla’s arrest, police told him he was also a suspect in the deaths of six other Edmonton-area prostitutes: Quinney, Bernadette Ahenakew, Edna Bernard, Debbie Lake, Monique Pitre, Melissa Munch and Sylvia Ballantyne. All were sex-trade workers and drug addicts who disappeared from Edmonton’s prostitution stroll. All were linked by police profilers."

+ Rachel Elizabeth Quinney.

 

[Patience]

Yes those are the 8 apparent linked cases IMO

At one time LE suspected one killer could be responsible for between 12 and 18 murders in the area over two decades.

http://www.leducrep.com/2015/04/28/skeletal-remains-of-edmonton-sex-trade-worker-found-near-leduc-near-other-body-finds

The murders of Quinney and Innes were part of a wave of violent crime against Edmonton women living high-risk lifestyles, with police at the time suspecting one killer possibly responsible for anywhere between a dozen and 18 murders in the area over two decades.
Previously, on Jan. 8, 2003, the body of Monique Pitre, 30, was found slain at Township Road 540 and Range Road 222 in Strathcona County.
Ellie May Meyer, 33, was then found beaten to death in a farmer’s field near Fort Saskatchewan in 2005.

 

[Sillybilly]

Aug 2015
rbbm.
http://www.lfpress.com/2015/08/04/serial-killer-fears-grow-after-another-body-found-near-edmonton

"RCMP Staff Sgt. Gerard MacNeil, with Project KARE, told the Edmonton Sun in 2012 that he's convinced a serial killer is still on the loose, despite convictions in some of the cases.
-
snip>- --- --

Some of the missing and murdered sex workers that may be linked to a serial killer in the Edmonton area:

AUG. 2010 -- Amber Tuccaro reported missing. Her remains were found on a rural property near Leduc on Sept. 1, 2012.

MARCH 2006 -- The body of Bonnie Joan Jack is discovered by two teenagers. The 37-year-old was last seen March 2, 2006, at the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton.

<rsbm>

Correction to the above ... the name is Bonnie Lynn Jack, aka Bonnie Lynn Loyie. (Sorry, bugs me when they get a victim's name wrong.)

It has always been of great interest to me that Bonnie grew up in Port Coquitlam near the Pickton farm, and she knew 6 of the Pickton victims.

 

[dotr]

<rsbm>

Correction to the above ... the name is Bonnie Lynn Jack. (Sorry, bugs me when they get a victim's name wrong.)

It has always been of great interest to me that Bonnie grew up in Port Coquitlam near the Pickton farm, and she knew 6 of the Pickton victims.

Thanks for noting the correct name!
Also, interesting that Bonnie was last seen March 2, 2006 at the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton.imo

 

[Woodland]

Bringing this article over from the cold case thread of Rachel Liz Quinney, opened today, post #2. The article is from 27 Oct 2005 and gives a different breakdown of the number of women and locations that Project Kare was looking at the time.

Project KARE, an RCMP-led task force set up in 2003, is conducting 72 investigations into the death or disappearance of people in the Prairies and Northwest Territories in high-risk lifestyles. Of those cases, 41 are unsolved homicides and 31 missing persons. All but three involve women.

http://www.canada.com/national/feat....html?id=05a2cad3-6bff-4fd6-b722-33af638a663e

A much broader area - huge actually - than just Edmonton. The article claims 72 cases as opposed to 83 - difficult to tell which number is correct.

 

[Sillybilly]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...7435090/?cmpid=rss1&google_editors_picks=true

Prime target: How serial killers prey on indigenous women ...

This story is part of an ongoing Globe and Mail investigation into the hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada ...