EPS has reopened files on 11 murdered Indigenous women
All unsolved historical murders of Aboriginal women in Edmonton are under review as police search for fresh clues in 10 cold cases, some of which now have suspects identified, the Journal has learned.
“We’ve had some breakthroughs where we’ve been able to certainly identify suspects,” said Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht. “Once we have a suspect, there’s fresh information.”
The cases — which involve 11 victims and date back as far as the 1970s — are under the purview of several investigators.
Since February 2016, between one and three investigators at any given time have been “on loan” from other units to focus on murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls.
These investigators are in addition to three regular members in the homicide unit who are working the cases.
Knecht, speaking at a recent media event, explained city police are “ramping up” collaborative work with other jurisdictions — “We’re all pressed for resources.”
“A lot of the crime is committed in the city and the body turns up in RCMP jurisdiction or vice versa,” Knecht said.
A 2014 RCMP report calculated 28 per cent of female homicide victims in Alberta between 1980 and 2012 were Aboriginal.
That compared to a national rate of 32 per cent. The number includes 1,017 Aboriginal female homicide victims and another 164 Aboriginal women who are considered missing across Canada.
Vivian (Tootsie) Tuccaro is still waiting for new information in the slaying of her 20-year-old daughter Amber Tuccaro, a member of Mikisew Cree First Nation, about 600 km north of Edmonton, near Fort Chipewyan.
Her daughter’s remains were found in a Leduc field in 2012, two years after she went missing.
“Even though my baby was found … all we got was a casket to bring home,” she said from her Fort Chipewyan home. “The killer is out there.” The RCMP, leading the investigation into Tuccaro’s killing, has its own set of historical cases across Alberta, said spokesman Cpl. Hal Turnbull.
“(Cases are) put into a holding pattern until new information comes in,” he said.
Tootsie Tuccaro wants to see more resources allocated to these cases across the province.
Her family plans to give testimony at the inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women, a process that advocates across Canada have criticized for delays and communication failures.
“Are they really going to find answers?” she wonders.
The last turning point in her daughter’s investigation happened in 2012 when police released an audio clip of a conversation she had with a man believed to be her killer.
Amber Tuccaro’s remains were discovered days later.
Tootsie Tuccaro said she now listens to the clip just to hear her daughter’s voice.
“I don’t think there’s ever closure; what is that, really?”
August 18 will mark the seventh anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance. “It doesn’t get easier,” she said, explaining that she gathers strength from her grandson, now eight years old, who takes after his mother.
“I’m very lucky I have him because I have a part of her left.”