CANADA Canada - Sonya Cywink, 31, London, Ont, 26 Aug 1994

[dotr]

http://aptn.ca/news/2016/08/31/who-killed-the-whirlwind-woman/

Sonya, originally from Whitefish River First Nation on Manitoulin Island, was living in London, Ont. at the time and struggling with the wide swath of addictions when she disappeared Aug. 26, 1994.

Witnesses reported last seeing her near Dundas and Lyle streets around 2 a.m.
Four days later her body was found just outside of London in Elgin County on the historical pre-contact village site of the Neutral people.
She was 31.
It’s been an open murder investigation for the Ontario Provincial Police ever since.

 

[dotr]

https://www.beaconreader.com/jane-gerster/the-unsolved-murder-of-the-whirlwind-woman
The unsolved murder of the Whirlwind Woman

Jane Gerster
Overview Part one of Sonya’s story: Sonya Cywink was murdered in August 1994. Here, her sister reflects on her life, her struggles, and the implications of Indian Status.


Published May 14, 2015

In the summer of 1998, Mag Cywink, her husband Tom, and a medicine man from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, travelled to southern Ontario. The purpose of their trip was to release two spirits: the spirit of Mag’s sister Sonya and the spirit of Sonya’s unborn child.
Hundreds of friends and family had gathered amid the greenery of Southwold Earthworks, a 40-minute drive southwest of London. Four years earlier, Sonya’s body had been found in that exact spot. They were about to perform the ancient ceremony when the medicine man, Floyd Looks for Buffalo Hand, turned to Mag and asked, “What is her Indian name? Does she have an Indian name?”
“No,” Mag told him, Sonya didn’t.
He paused, then told Mag: “I’m going to give her a name.”
He thought for a few moments.
He gave Sonya a name from the Lakota tribe, into which Tom had been adopted. Mag can no longer remember the Lakota version, she’s since had it translated into Ojibway: “Biiskwaa-noodin-kwe.”
It means, “Whirlwind Woman,” Floyd told Mag—like a column of air swirling dust or snow or rain; like a tornado. He said, “Whenever you see that, you’ll know that Sonya’s bringing a message.”

Sonya in 1977.

 

[PastTense]

"Sonya Cywink’s father died before his daughter’s killer was ever brought to justice.

For Cywink’s older sister, Maggie, that has compounded the grief of losing her sibling, who was pregnant when she was found dead on a historical Indigenous settlement southwest of St. Thomas 25 years ago.

“There was no closure. There were no answers for him to find out what really happened to his little girl,” Maggie Cywink, who has been leading the family’s push for answers in the cold case, said Monday from Manitoulin Island.

Now, the family and the OPP have partnered to erect two billboards in London appealing to the public for information in the unsolved homicide."
Victim's family, police seek clues to 1994 Sonya Cywink slaying

 

[dotr]

Aug 26 2019

 

[CastlesBurning]

Sister hopes 25-year-old slaying of Sonya Cywink soon solved

The Murder of Sonya Cywink

 

[dotr]

Sister hopes 25-year-old slaying of Sonya Cywink soon solved

The Murder of Sonya Cywink

Thanks for the fresh articles!
From your second link.. rbbm.
"Sonya spent the majority of her early life mentoring the younger children in the community. Seen as a leader, she ran a choir at the local church and around the holidays would take the girls around the reserve to sing Christmas carols, after which she’d bring them back to the house for presents and treats.

Unfortunately, Sonya’s life took a turn around the time she became a teenager, when she experienced a trauma from which she was never fully able to recover. Then, at the age of 16, she became pregnant and dropped out of high school. Upon the baby being born, he was put up for adoption and not long after was adopted by a distant relative.

After giving birth, Sonya decided she needed a change and moved to Toronto, Ontario to be near her sister, Maggie. Maggie was happy to have her sister around, but noticed the move was a bit of an adjustment for Sonya, who wasn’t used to big city living and was dependent on her sister for support.

When she was 18, she was living with a boyfriend and found herself in an environment of frequent drug use. For more than a decade, Sonya lived a life that fell between addiction and sobriety. When she was high, she could disappear for days at a time, and when sober would return to the way her friends and family knew her: happy, loving and caring. In late 1992 or early 1993, Maggie was able to get her sister into a treatment facility located in London, Ontario, where she was finally able to get clean. This lasted approximately 10 months.

During the spring of 1994, Sonya relapsed and turned to sex work to help fund her habit. At the time, she was living in east London.

In July 1994, the Cywink family took a vacation at a lodge north of their home in Birch Island, Ontario, where they relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. While cleaning Sonya’s room, Maggie discovered syringes and became aware of her sister’s relapse.

DISAPPEARANCE & DEATH:
Upon returning home from vacation, Maggie called Sonya, who didn’t pick up the phone, despite her sister’s numerous attempts to get a hold of her. While Maggie was worried, she told herself it was normal for Sonya to disappear for a short length of time, and tried again to call her sister that August. Sonya answered the call and the two made plans to attend a Toronto Blue Jays game to celebrate her birthday. She never made it to the game.

Worried about her sister, Maggie travelled to London and started driving around, and she soon learnt of Sonya’s sex work. On August 26, she was seen at the corner of Lyle Street and Dundas Street, located in the city’s east end, at around 2:00am. This would be the last time Sonya would be seen alive."


On August 30, a call came into the Elgin County detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, saying that a body had been found at Southwold Earthworks in Southwold Township, a historic site that was once home to an Indigenous community in the 1500s. When officers arrived on scene, they discovered Sonya’s body, clad in only a t-shirt and socks. There were signs of blunt force trauma.


The area where Sonya’s body was found is located 65km southwest of where she was last seen in London and is about a 40-minute drive.

 

[dotr]

Tw
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/sonya-nadine-mae-cywink
"Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink, 31, was an avid writer and the second-youngest of 13 siblings. She was found slain on Aug. 30, 1994, in Elgin County, Ontario. The homicide case is being handled by the Ontario Provincial Police’s Elgin County region. In 2004, investigators announced they had a break in the case and were close to solving it, but the case still remains unsolved. In 2017, police announced a $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in her murder, they’re hoping for new leads."

 

[dotr]

June 3 2020
Canada is asking families of murdered, missing Indigenous women to wait for action plan. Why?

 

[dotr]

Aug 28 2020 rbbm.
OPP hope $60K reward will help solve 1994 murder
''Provincial police are hoping a cash reward will help solve a case surrounding the disappearance of a London woman in 1994.

This weekend marks 26 years since Sonya Cywink‘s remains were found at the Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site of Canada, near Iona, in Elgin County. The Earthworks is a piece of property southwest of London containing the archaeological remains of a village originally inhabited by the Attiwandaron, also known as the Neutral Iroquois.

Though she was originally from Whitefish River First Nation territory on Manitoulin Island, Cywink was living in London’s east end when she went missing.''

Police are offering a reward of $60,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for her death. More information on the reward can be found here.

 

[tarabull]

26 years later, sister wants OPP to use new techniques to find Sonya Cywink's killer
August 30, 2020

 

[LadyL]

26 years later, sister wants OPP to use new techniques to find Sonya Cywink's killer
August 30, 2020

Though police haven't said where the homicide took place, her sister holds on to the belief that it happened at the historical site near Iona, in Elgin County.

"The only consolation I have is knowing that her last breath and her last moments on earth [were] in a place of our people, and that she was greeted by our people," she said.

very sad

 

[dotr]

Sonya Cywink was ‘beginning to feel good’ about herself. Her unsolved murder points to hundreds more
By Peter Edwards
Aug 1 2021 rbbm.
''Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink loved to pick wild raspberries and strawberries and swim off a dock near her northern Ontario home.

Sonya was the 12th of 13 children and never lacked for company. Her family remembers Sonya becoming like a little mother at age two when little sister Anastasia was born.

Sonya would gaze into the crib at the newcomer. As Anastasia grew up, Sonya loved to take her out to play, sometimes dressing in matching outfits.

“She (Sonya) was the gentlest, kindest of all of us,” her older sister Meg said in an interview nearly 27 years after Sonya’s still-unsolved murder. “People loved her. She was a warm, gentle person.”

Their father Wilfred was a foreman for CP Rail for 35 years and the Cywinks weren’t rich by any stretch. They had outdoor plumbing and carried water into the house for baths, which were taken in the kitchen, with a curtain strung from the ceiling for privacy.

Back then, Sonya would spend hours helping a friend understand math and it was easy to imagine her eventually becoming a teacher.''

''Sonya was found wearing just a T-shirt and socks, and her body showed signs of blunt-force trauma.

An autopsy also showed she was 24 weeks pregnant.

Sonya’s family named her unborn baby Jacob.

Sonya’s father died six years later, never knowing who killed his daughter.

Sonya’s death made her one of almost 1,200 cases of murdered or missing Indigenous women between 1980 and 2012, according to RCMP statistics. Of those cases, the RCMP count lists 114 missing in Ontario over the same period.''
''There is a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. $50,000 of that is from police and the other $10,000 from Sonya’s family.''

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Nearly three decades later, family seeks answers in Sonya Cywink’s death

New information has come to light in the unsolved homicide of Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink.

london.ctvnews.ca

New information has come to light in the unsolved homicide of Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink


This has prompted a plea from the family to get more answers into the nearly three decades old case.

On Thursday morning, loved ones and the OPP will hold a news conference at the Southwold earthworks — the site of where her body was found.

 

[dotr]

Plea for information on decades old cold case

New information has come to light in the unsolved homicide of Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink

www.iheartradio.ca

Aug 25 2022
''Meggie Cywink was joined by retired OPP Sgt. Chris Gheysen and retired OPP Deputy Commissioner John Carson at a news conference on Thursday morning.

The group gathered at Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site in Elgin County — the site of where Maggie's sister's body was discovered 28 years ago.

Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink was found on Aug. 30 1994 and was last seen alive at Dundas and Lyle Streets in London, Ont. on Aug. 26, 1994.

Family and volunteers are appealing to the public in hopes that someone remembers information to help the OPP solve this cold case.


Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers or reach out directly to Meggie.''

 

[lexie_bennett]

Who was the father of the baby she was carrying and where is he? Wasn't he questioned about her death? Maybe he wasn't happy about her pregnancy at all, and assuming he also had a drug addiction... things could've gotten out of hand.

 

[dotr]

Aug 26, 2024

Police renew plea for answers on 30th anniversary of pregnant woman's slaying

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the unsolved slaying of Sonya Cywink.

lfpress.com

''Now, the family and the Ontario Provincial Police have partnered to erect two billboards in London appealing to the public for information in the unsolved homicide.

Family members will also travel to London later this month to canvas the area around Dundas and Lyle streets, where Cywink was last seen alive on Aug. 26, 1994.

Her body was found four days later – showing signs of blunt force trauma, and wearing only a T-shirt and socks – at Southwold Earthworks, a former Indigenous community on Iona Road in Elgin County.

Cywink, who was originally from Whitefish River First Nation in northern Ontario, came to London for substance abuse treatment, her sister said, adding she was clean for 10 months before relapsing and working in the sex trade.''