Murder charge laid in death of woman who went missing in Wabasca in 2015
The daughter of an Alberta woman whose remains were discovered in rural Manitoba last week says she’s devastated after learning police believe her mother was murdered.
RCMP arrested a 68-year-old man Wednesday afternoon in the death of Gloria Gladue, who went missing from the Wabasca, Alta., area in October 2015.
Nicole Gladue-Weesemat said she was in shock and “heartbroken” after receiving the news from Mounties at the Edson RCMP detachment Wednesday.
“I thought the not knowing was hard,” she said. “This outcome is hard, because I honestly wasn’t expecting this. I honestly thought we were going to find her alive, and go back to being a family.”
Gladue leaves behind seven children and 17 grandchildren. She was 44 at the time of her disappearance, police said.
Gladue was reported missing from Wabasca on Nov. 17, 2015 and was last seen entering a residence in the Wabasca area on Oct. 10, 2015.
On June 17 — two-and-a-half years later — police found her remains in rural Manitoba. The medical examiner’s office in Winnipeg confirmed the remains belong to Gladue.
Police arrested a man from Gladstone, Man., in Edmonton Wednesday afternoon.
Gladue-Weesemat said the lead detective on the case unexpectedly called her Wednesday and asked if she could come to the detachment in Edson, where she lives.
“They took me into a room and broke the news and I just broke down and kept saying, ‘No, it’s not her,’ ” she said, adding she spent much of Wednesday relaying the news to her siblings.
“They said, ‘Sadly, it is.’ ” Gladue-Weesemat remembered her mother as a “beautiful soul”
I’ve seen this on the news plenty of times with other Aboriginal women and girls ... I couldn’t really understand ... now I exactly know.
who was easy to get along with, “(the) type of person you could just talk to and she’d smile at you and bring you in.”
Before Gladue went missing, she planned to move to Edson to be with Gladue-Weesemat, who still has many of her clothes and household items.
She had never heard of the man charged in her mother’s death, adding it’s important the public know about her mother’s case.
“I’ve seen this on the news plenty of times with other Aboriginal women and girls,” she said. “I couldn’t really understand ... what they were going through, and now I exactly know and I wish I didn’t.”
“Justice needs to be served,” she added. “Our country needs to recognize all the Aboriginal women and girls that are going missing and murdered. Everyone’s life matters.”
Grant Sneesby, 68, is charged with second-degree murder and offering an indignity to human remains. He is to appear in Desmarais provincial court July 12.