CANADA Donna Mitchell, 31, Victoria BC, Homicide; strangled to death, 1983

[IslandGirlTC]

This case has been on my mind for a while now. If you research it, there’s not a lot to go on, unfortunately. Just the linked article and some stuff about Victoria’s haunted history but I won’t go into that here. This is about Donna and her case. I’m not sure how to check for records if any are publicly accessible.

Her name is Donna Mitchell and she was 31 years old when she was killed. At first she was reported as missing on June 2, 1983 by her common law husband who was worried when she failed to show up for her daughter’s birthday party. On November 15, 1983, she was found strangled and her body hidden under bushes and debris behind and a short ways away from the welcome sign of a poplar park. LE say she was killed somewhere else and her body dumped in the park. Not sure if I’m allowed to tell you the name of the park on WS as per the rules but it is noted in the linked article. I’ve been to the location where she was found so that’s how I was able to be specific in where she was. It’s a well known part of the haunted history.

Allegedly, she went to meet a group of friends and was seen arguing with one of them at some point. LE made quick progress and got a warrant for an arrest for a suspect that lived in Vancouver but he died by suicide before they could get to him. After that the case went cold. The LE in charge eventually retired and someone else later came in to investigate as a cold case. Sounds like other suspects were being considered.


There’s more details in the article. Again, there’s not much on this case that I can find. Looks like nothing has been done since this article was written.


Link to MSM article: Leads in slaying went cold with suspect's suicide

Any ideas on how to help get things moving?

 

[IslandGirlTC]

Found her listed on a few "missing and murdered" lists. None of them are MSM but do stick to their topic without getting into opinions.

This is from a local news and events site: Greater Victoria unsolved murder and missing person list

This is the first time I've seen her being said to a have a First Nations background: Murdered and Missing Aboriginal Women and Girls Canada

This list looks to be intended as a report to the RCMP (LE). They do mention someone they want investigated. He allegedly has a dislike of woman and children. Some of the other cases mentioned are from the 80's and 90's. It also mentions Saanich which is a municipality not far from where Donna was last seen in the Downtown area of Victoria. Report to RCMP Filed in 2012

 

[IslandGirlTC]

On a whim, I checked newspapers.com and managed to find quite a bit of original 1980's news coverage of Donna Mitchell's disappearance and death from the Times Columnist (local MSM). I organized it into a timeline.

1983

June 8th, 1983 – Police Mystified At At Disappearance
June 8th, 1983 – Missing Woman Bleeding Internally
June 8th, 1983 – Worry Clouds A Birthday Party
June 8th, 1983 – (Continued from party article) No Hassles, Says Waiter
June 9th, 1983 – Did Woman Seek Help At Home?
June 9th, 1983 – Lost Woman May Have Sought Phone
June 11th, 1983 – Did Woman Take Taxi?
June 14th, 1983 – Police “Grabbing At Straws” In Woman’s Disappearance
November 18th, 1983 – Five Month’s Anguish Over Missing Wife
November 22nd, 1983 – Corpse In Park Mitchell
December 21st, 1983 – Flowering Shrub Clue To Murder

1984

January 6th, 1984 – Green River Killer Link Checked
January 19th, 1984 – (Names person of interest) Christie Brother Ran From Funeral
January 23rd,1984 – Police Doubt Murders Linked

1988

June 7th, 1988 – Homicide Group Attempts To Find Woman’s Killer

These articles concern the Person Of Interest (POI) in Donna’s case. This along with the "Christie Brother Ran From Funeral" article shows that he may have been in jail at the time of the murder and why.

October 17th, 1974 – Man Charged In Stabbing
June 3rd, 1975 – Knifing Started With A Blonde
June 23rd, 1975 – Death Nets 8 Years

I always heard there was an argument in or outside the restaurant but that doesn't seem to be the case. I really don't see how the POI could have done it although I'm sure LE had their reasons. I did find some of Donna's common law husband's statements kind of odd and he did contradict himself a couple times.

 

[IslandGirlTC]

Correction: the news source for the original news coverage is Times Colonist. I always get the name mixed up, haha.