Police seek help in tracing homicide victim’s final days
Investigators say they don’t believe attack on Trisheena Simon was random
The last time Ricky Peigan heard from his daughter was about four months ago, as she struggled to stabilize a life in Calgary and build a home for her two young children.
It was with an unresolved pain that 28-year-old Trisheena Simon said goodbye to her stepfather of 14 years for a final time, still reeling years after the still unexplained death of her mother, Cheryl Simon, in an RCMP cell in Maskwacis.
Trisheena will never learn what happened to her mom, after she became the victim of a vicious assault last week in Brentwood that ultimately turned fatal, leaving investigators asking for help in tracing her final days.
Police said Simon was discovered in distress by a security guard outside the Royal Bank at 4820 Northland Drive N.W. about 1:20 a.m. last Wednesday. She was taken to hospital but died two days later.
An autopsy on Monday determined Simon’s death to be a homicide.
Insp. Don Coleman said Simon was found with “massive head injuries.” He said police don’t yet know if Simon was assaulted in the area where she was found or dropped off there. Police believe the last time she was seen was late Feb. 20 or early Feb. 21 at one of the city’s emergency shelters.
“The best information we have is that Trisheena was somewhat transient and didn’t have a residence of her own and would have been in that particular situation for the past number of years,” said Coleman.
But her father remembers a different Trisheena than the one police describe.
“All Trisheena cared about were her children and family,” Peigan said, adding she leaves behind two children aged seven and nine. “As a daughter she was so loving and witty with her beautiful sense of humour.”
In April 2014, Simon’s mother was found unresponsive in an RCMP cell in Maskwacis during a routine prisoner check. Despite briefly reviving after officers performed CPR, she later died in hospital. She had been arrested after a disturbance. A fatality inquiry is planned by the province but has yet to be scheduled, and Simon’s grieving dad said the fact it remained unresolved continued to haunt her.
Peigan said the last words he received from his daughter still “echo in my mind.”
“Mom’s gone and all I got left is you, dad … plus my brothers and sister,” she wrote in what would be the last communication Peigan ever received from her. “I love you. I’ll come check on you and see how things are coming along for mom’s case.”
Investigators with the Calgary police homicide unit don’t believe Simon was the victim of a random attack, and are looking for help to determine what she had been doing in the days and hours leading up to the deadly attack.
“Investigators have compiled a list of people that are being interviewed and trying to determine who may have been involved or, more importantly, where Trisheena was or who she may have been associating with leading up to the assault,” Coleman said.
Peigan issued his own plea for help finding those responsible for his daughter’s death.
“This father begs for the public’s assistance in getting my daughter justice. Please,” he said.
Simon’s death marks the city’s fourth homicide of 2017. Anyone with information is asked to call the homicide unit tip line at 403-428-8877 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.