From left: Claudette Osborne, Tanya Nepinak and Amber Rose Marie Guiboche (Supplied)
Manitoba families give police a failing grade when it comes to investigating cases of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW).
On a scale of one to 10, the families CBC spoke to gave police a 2.2 out of 10.
Claudette Osborne
Matthew Bushby said he thinks his fiancee’s disappearance in July 2008 was low on the priority list. Claudette Osborne was labeled a sex trade worker.
“Claudette was always calling or in touch, to let me know, and this wasn’t regular for her. We had a relationship for almost three years and 90 per cent of the time she was clean and sober,” Bushby said, adding police didn’t send out a missing person report for almost two weeks.
CBC met up with Bushby recently at Winnipeg’s garbage hill, a former landfill-turned-greenspace that overlooks part of the city. Bushby said he would go there with Osborne in happier times.
“We’d bike here or drive here, the day and night, look at the cityscape. And when it wasn’t cloudy, we’d look at the stars.”
Tanya Nepinak
Sue Caribou believes her niece, Tanya Nepinak, isn’t a priority either. Police searched for her body in the Brady Landfill for six days in 2012. In November of 2013, charges against Shawn Lamb in her death were stayed.
Nepinak’s body has never been found. Caribou fears her family will never see justice.
“They (police) don’t say anything about investigating it any more or searching for her, so we don’t hear anything from them and it’s not fair,” Caribou said.
Amber Guiboche
Amber Guiboche went missing in November of 2010. Last August, police released a sketch of a man who might know what happened to the 20 year old.
Her sister, Ashley Geddes, said at the time, police told her Guiboche was probably partying.
“Four years later she’s still out partying? She’s still out having a good time?” Geddes said. “I want answers. I’m demanding answers now. It’s been four years, enough is enough. I want my sister home.”
Awareness growing
Bushby said awareness about these missing and murdered women is growing and the RCMP, Winnipeg Police joint task force Project Devote is making a difference.
At first, he gave police a rating of four on Osborne’s case. He now gives them a seven. And like 70 per cent of the families CBC talked to, Bushby wants a national inquiry.
“Once it’s on paper, you can have agencies and advocates hold something and say, ‘look, this is what’s been recommended, this is what we have found out. The proof is here.’ I think we need that.”
Now he’s focused on being a dad to nine kids — three of them are Osborne’s.
“It was three years of a wonderful time cut short,” he said.
As he looked out over the city, he still wonders where she is and what happened to her.
Police from Project Devote will comment later today.
