CANADA Canada - Janet Henry, 36, Vancouver, BC, 25 June 1997

[TheArtfulDetective]

Janet Gail Henry



Vital Statistics

• • Date Of Birth: April 10, 1961
  • Age at Time of Disappearance: 36 years old
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3"; 115 lbs.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: Native female. (Namgis First Nation of BC) Brown hair; brown eyes; wears glasses.
  • Other: Known drug user.

Janet was 36 years old when she was last seen in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia on June 25th, 1997. Janet was known to call her sister, Sandra Gagnon, everyday to let her know she was okay but stopped leaving messages or returning calls on June 25th. She reportedly worked in the sex trade as a means of supporting her drug and alcohol addiction.

Janet grew up the youngest of 13 children. 3 of her older siblings were taken from the family and forced to go to Residential School, known as Indian Boarding Schools in the United States. Janet's father passed away when she was a child and her mother was deemed unable to care for her and four of her siblings. She and her siblings ended up in foster care. One of her siblings was raped and murdered when Janet was 19. A brother of hers committed suicide. Her siblings that were forced to attend Residential School fell into depression and alcoholism. Janet became involved in drugs and alcohol after her marriage failed in the last 1980's and her ex husband was awarded full custody of their daughter.

The Downtown East Side of Vancouver is known to be dangerous for women, especially sex workers. In 2002 a large scale search for evidence was conducted by RCMP on a Port Coquitlam farm which eventually returned with 15 charges of murder against a multi-millionaire pig farmer named Robert Pickton. In 2006 those charges had increased to 22 charges of murder. The majority of Pickton's Victims were murdered after 1997. No evidence of Henry's body or belongings were found on the farm but police believe her disappearance may be connected to Pickton. Pickton was later found guilty of 6 of the murders and is currently serving his 25 year sentence without parole, the harshest sentence allowed by Canadian law.

According to her sister Sandra, Janet was unhappy with her way of life and intended to become sober and be a part of her daughters' lives. Janet's family believes she is deceased and is a victim of Pickton's. Her case remains unsolved.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Missing Women's Tipline at 1-877-687-3377

Vancouver Police Department
Missing Persons Unit
604-717-2530
Agency Case Number: 97-158127
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Justice for Native People: Janet Henry, Missing from British Columbia Since 1997.
The Doe Network: Case File 2008DFBC

 

[TheArtfulDetective]

Maple Ridge woman not holding out for answers about missing sister

May. 27, 2011

Sandra Gagnon isn’t optimistic the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry will answer questions about her lost sister.

When formal proceedings begin later this year, she’ll be staying away for the most part.

“I am moving on with my life,” says Gagnon, who reported her sister Janet Henry’s disappearance to police almost 14 years ago, on June 25, 1997.

“It has torn me down in the past and I don’t want it to happen again.”

One of 62 women missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Henry’s face still remains on a “Missing Women” poster.

Although there has been no conclusive DNA evidence linking Henry to Robert Pickton’s Port Coquitlam pig farm, Gagnon has little doubt about where her sister died.

“We haven’t got any answers, but the task force is almost certain that Janet ended up there. They know more than we do, but they don’t tell us everything,” she says.

She still hopes that one day her family will find out what happened to Henry.

“I hope one day we can find answers so we can go back to Alert Bay and have a memorial service and erect a tombstone,” says Gagnon.

Last week, the province announced several families of murdered and missing women will receive government funding to participate in the inquiry.

Gagnon wasn’t one of the 13 applicants who requested financial assistance to participate in formal hearings.

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the provincial government last year to research the conduct of police investigations into women reported missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside between January 23, 1997 and February 5, 2002.

It will also investigate missing women and suspected multiple murders throughout the province.

The commission forums are expected to begin in northern B.C. in mid-June. The final report will be submitted to the attorney general on or before Dec. 31.

Maple Ridge woman not holding out for answers about missing sister - Maple Ridge News

 

[TheArtfulDetective]

Alert Bay memorial for missing woman

Feb. 9, 2012



Janet Henry is finally returning to her Alert Bay home.

Not in body — that disappeared about 15 years ago, most likely on Willie Pickton’s pig farm — but in spirit, her sister told the Gazette.

“I last heard from her June 25, 1997,” said Sandy Gagnon, 55. “We were supposed to get together, but I wasn’t feeling well so we said another time,” Gagnon recalled.

“I never did see her again.”

Henry was the youngest of 12 children — only three of whom are still alive — born to an Alert Bay fisherman and his wife.

“Some of the kids were put in residential schools, the others spent time in foster homes,” said Gagnon.

If any family had the right to feel cursed, it was this one.

When Janet was a youngster in the 80s, she survived contact with serial killer Clifford Olson, who drugged but inexplicably spared Henry.

“I asked my sister what happened, why did he let her go,” recalled Gagnon.

“She told me she didn’t remember a thing because Olson had drugged her.” It was the same story Janet gave to the cops who were investigating the infamous serial killer of children and youth.

But Janet seemed a magnet to tragedy: she was six when she saw her Alert Bay father wash overboard and drown; her sister, Lavina, was raped and murdered in the early ‘70s in Nanaimo. Another sister, 21-year-old Debbie, was abused in a foster home and committed suicide in 1981.

Her twin brother, Stan, died in Vancouver in 1990 after being struck by a police car.

Another sister died recently, as did a nephew.

The final chapter of Janet’s own life came in 1997.

She was 34 living on the Downtown Eastside, her home for the past for seven years, said Gagnon.

Henry was last seen at an East Hastings hotel in Vancouver on June 25, 1997.

She had a drinking and drug problem, several related health problems and may have been involved in prostitution.

“I know she worked the streets off and on and she did have a drug problem,” said Gagnon.

Still, the sisters were close and kept in almost daily contact and it was a shock when Henry didn’t call her sister.

“I knew something was wrong,” Gagnon said.

“She paid her rent in advance and had cash in the bank, but never claimed any of it.”

A short time later — three days, to be exact — Gagnon took a picture of her sister to the cops and filled out a missing persons report.

“We learned Janet went missing with a whole pile of other women and we believe she ended up on that Pickton farm,” she said.

Robert “Willie” Pickton was a Port Coquitlam serial killer convicted of the second-degree murders of six women, but it’s believed he killed at least 20 more, many of them prostitutes and drug addicts from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

While it’s never been proven Henry was one of Pickton’s victims, her face is one of 64 on a police poster of women missing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Still, life moved on, as it will, and Henry’s daughter, Debra, graduated high school, studied to earn a degree in criminology and is happily married, reported Gagnon, who added April is the right time to say goodbye to her sister.

“We wanted to have a memorial so we could move on with our lives,” she said. “I think the whole town might be there.”

The memorial takes place in Alert Bay April 10.

Alert Bay memorial for missing woman - North Island Gazette

 

[PommyMommy]

FEB 7, 2022
Sister of missing woman marks anniversary of raid at Pickton farm – Maple Ridge News
This week marked a terrible anniversary for Maple Ridge’s SG.

It was 20 years years ago on Sunday that police raided the Port Coquitlam farm of Robert “Willie” Pickton, and for the first time she began learning about the serial killer who is believed responsible for her sister’s disappearance.

Monday was also a tragic anniversary – the day when her son, who was 23, took his own life.

Her sister Janet Henry, who lived in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood and had reportedly worked in the sex trade, had been missing since June of 1997.

“We were going to go out that week, but she didn’t call me,” she recalled.

She got no return phone calls, which was very unusual. As she started asking questions, Gagnon knew something was wrong. Henry, 34, had left her place, leaving all her possessions, and nobody saw her return. Her bank account still had money in it. Nobody could say what had happened to her.

[...]

 

[CastlesBurning]

Duplicate thread -- CANADA - Canada - Janet Henry, 36, Vancouver, BC, 28 June 1997