The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed Thursday there is now an “open investigation” into the death of Audrey Desjarlais. That includes reviewing why police were told she was seen alive when her body was, in fact, stored away in a morgue and left unidentified as a “Jane Doe.”
DNA tests confirmed the remains of Desjarlais this week — three years after her body was found in the Red River. Her daughter, Barb Desjarlais, long suspected the unidentified woman was her mother.
It wasn’t until a CBC investigation in April that police were moved to honour Barb’s pleas.
On Thursday, police contacted Barb Desjarlais at her Regina home and gave her the news.
A police spokesperson told CBC they, too, wish a DNA test was performed years earlier. He said they made their decision based on “well-intentioned” information, though in hindsight, they realize it was “mistaken.”
The next step for police is to determine how Audrey Desjarlais ended up in the river and why.
While her remains had no visible signs of foul play, police haven’t ruled that out as a possible factor in Desjarlais’s death. Now that investigators know who she was, they’ll try to retrace her final steps.
In the meantime, Desjarlais’s family is trying to cope with the new information, seeking closure and determining whether they can finally bring her home to Saskatchewan.
