National Post (National Edition)
‘You think you know your neighbours’
Body’s discovery rattles residents
Until recently, the big news in the rural farming community of Silver Creek, tucked between mountains in B.C.’s southern interior, was the summer drought and griping over a local bridge that hadn’t yet been repaired after spring floods.
Lately though, all anyone in this picturesque valley just outside Salmon Arm, B.C., can think or talk about is the grisly discovery of human remains on a 24-acre property along winding Salmon River Road that police have been searching since Oct. 19.
“It all ranges from shock to disbelief to being afraid,” said one 14-year resident who lives down the road and requested anonymity. “You live here and feel a sense of peace and safety. That’s sort of been shattered. … You think you know your neighbours; this questions all of that.”
Late Wednesday, RCMP confirmed that the remains belonged to Traci Genereaux, 18, of Vernon, one of at least five women who have gone missing in the North Okanagan-Shuswap region since early 2016.
To date, no one has been charged in connection to her death. But the property has been linked to a local man who was arrested and charged last month after a sex worker told police that a man had threatened her with a gun.
As police continued to use heavy equipment to search the property with “no timeline” of when they’ll be done, some residents said they couldn’t help but compare the investigation to the case of Robert Pickton, the convicted serial killer whose Port Coquitlam, B.C., pig farm was found to contain the remains of dozens of women.
“It’s like the Pickton case all over again,” said one resident who lives near the Silver Creek General Store and who also requested anonymity.
Police have urged the public not to jump to conclu- sions. In a statement, RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said the priority for investigators is building a timeline of Genereaux’s activities leading up to May 29, the last day she was seen alive.
Her family has said that Genereaux had been involved in the sex trade and used drugs but that she had been working to turn her life around.
“She just got mixed up in some bad shit at a young age. … She was trying, she wanted to get out of the stuff,” her sister, Kyla Genereaux, told Postmedia News this week after the family was notified of the positive DNA match.
“She was the nicest person to everyone. And she had such a good heart. She was awesome,” she said.
Other women who’ve gone missing in the region include:
Caitlin Po tt s , 27: Her family last heard from her in February, 2016. She had been living with a man in nearby Enderby. CBC News reported she had messaged a roommate before her disappearance saying she was off to catch a ride to Calgary with someone she met online.
Ashley Simpson, 32, and Deanna Wertz, 46: They both lived just outside Salmon Arm along Yankee Flats Road, not far from the property being searched. Wertz, an avid hiker who lived with her husband, vanished in July, 2016. Simpson, who lived in a camper with her boyfriend, disappeared in April, 2016. The Salmon Arm Observer reported that she’d had a fight with her boyfriend and announced she was leaving for Ontario prior to disappearing.
Nicole Bell, 31: The mother of three young children was last seen in September in Sicamous, B.C., but her cellphone was found in Salmon Arm after her disappearance.
Police have been searching the Silver Creek property, which houses horses and cows, since Oct. 19. In addition to heavy machinery, investigators called in an underwater recovery team to search the Salmon River, which runs through the property.
Property records list the owners as Wayne and Evelyn Sagmoen. Neighbours describe the couple as friendly and hardworking.
One neighbour told the local newspaper: “My kids loved to go over there and see their horses, we’d pick apples, we’d help them out from time to time, like neighbours do.”
Their son, Curtis Sagmoen, 36, who is reported to have lived on the property off and on, is in custody facing charges in an unrelated matter.
On Aug. 28, a woman reported to police that a man had threatened her with a firearm. They had arranged to meet after connecting on a website used by escorts and sex workers, according to RCMP. The woman was able to flee unharmed.
Sagmoen held various construction-related jobs, as a piledriver and bridgeman. His Facebook page showed he followed various groups, ranging from heavy equipment operator jobs to horses for sale to “bikini girls.”
One neighbour previously told the Salmon Arm Observer that the ongoing investigation was like a “bad dream.”
“It’s like some TV crime show, except it’s happening right down the road,” said the resident, who asked not to be identified. “It’s pretty scary to think of what might have been taking place almost right under your nose.”
The resident who lives near the store said Thursday “just not knowing” is what weighs on people’s minds right now. She said she’s been trying to stay away from Facebook because of all the unhelpful speculation. “I think everyone wants answers, so we can just move on.”