Family of slain woman files RCMP complaint
Mother accuses Leduc officers of botching case
The family of a northern Alberta woman who went missing in 2010 and whose remains were found two years later has filed a complaint about how the Leduc RCMP handled her case.
Twenty-year-old Amber Tuccaro, a mother of one from Fort McMurray, is believed to have been slain near Edmonton. She was last seen at a hotel in Nisku.
“I want someone to be accountable” for how the case was handled, said her mother, Vivian Tuccaro.
In a letter to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, Tuccaro alleges the Leduc RCMP “failed to perform an adequate investigation” into the disappearance and death of her daughter,
The RCMP has recognized “initial elements of the investigation were mishandled,” said Sgt. Josee Valiquette, a media relations officer for the RCMP K Division, on Friday.
Amber flew from Fort McMurray to Edmonton on Aug. 17, 2010, with her 14-monthold son, Jacob, and a female friend. The three stayed at a motel in Nisku overnight and Tuccaro left the next evening, looking for a ride into Edmonton.
Police know that between 7:30 and 8 p.m. she got into a vehicle with an unknown man. While she was in his vehicle, she received a phone call. Police were able to obtain a recording of it.
In it, Amber can be heard repeatedly asking the man if he is taking her to the city. He assures her he is taking her to “50th Street.”
Police believe she was actually taken to rural Leduc County. On Sept. 1, 2012, her skull was found east of Leduc near Highway 263 and Range Road 241.
In the complaint, Tuccaro alleges that evidence from the Nisku hotel room was destroyed and that Leduc RCMP removed Amber from the missing person’s list without following proper policy to verify alleged sightings of Amber.
Speaking from her home in Fort Chipewyan, Vivian Tuccaro said that once she called to report her daughter missing, she made daily calls to the RCMP. One day, she was told her daughter had been removed from the missing person’s list. She alleges the RCMP said they heard from someone who said they had seen Amber but had not verified the sighting.
“I always felt like something’s wrong. It’s not like Amber to not get in contact with us,” said Tuccaro.
Valiquette, from the RCMP, said the Alberta force “learned a great deal from the file” and has since created a missing person’s unit and developed new policies and procedures for these cases.
“Our goal is to find out what happened to Amber Tuccaro and the investigation remains active,” Valiquette said.
Amber’s case was eventually transferred to Project Kare, an RCMP unit that investigates cases of murdered or missing high-risk people from Alberta.
It was through Project Kare that a recording was released to the public of Amber speaking with the unknown man in the car.
The family still hopes someone will recognize the man’s voice, which can be heard on the Project Kare website.
“I have nightmares about that voice,” Tuccaro said. “That’s what my family hopes for, is that this monster or creep will be found and that justice will be served for Amber.”