Suspected mass murderer still on lam

WELDON, Sask. — A notice sent via Saskatchewan’s emergency alert system on Wednesday afternoon said further investigation by RCMP had determined Myles Sanderson was not on the James Smith Cree Nation, as an earlier warning had suggested.

Sanderson, who is a suspect in a deadly series of stabbings northeast of Saskatoon over the weekend, remains at large and the alert says the public is urged to take “appropriate precautions.”

The earlier emergency notice said investigators received a report that Sanderson had been seen in the community and advised residents in the area to seek shelter.

Mounties had surrounded a home on the First Nation, but shortly after were seen leaving the area.

Sanderson is one of the accused in the stabbings over the weekend at several locations on the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby village of Weldon, in which 10 men and women were killed and 18 were injured, not including the suspects.

RCMP have said his brother, Damien Sanderson, who had also been a suspect, was found dead Monday in a grassy area not far from one of the crime scenes.

Police had been searching a wide area, with alerts issued in Manitoba and Alberta as well.

In Regina, a three-hour drive south of James Smith Cree Nation, police reported a possible sighting on the weekend of a vehicle the suspects had driven.

Leaders of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations issued an appeal to find Myles Sanderson, begging those with knowledge of his whereabouts to come forward to help end the manhunt without any more loss of life.

A former Mountie said the vast open spaces of the Prairies could complicate any manhunt.

“This is a huge area, and there’s a whole lot of nothing,” said retired RCMP officer Sherry Benson-Podolchuk. “There’s a lot of places people can hide.”

Parole documents show Myles Sanderson has a nearly twodecade-long criminal record and a propensity for violence when intoxicated.

He received statutory release from prison in August 2021, but it was revoked about four months later because the board said he failed to communicate with his parole supervisor.

In the document, the board said it decided to reinstate his statutory release with a reprimand, and said Sanderson “will not present an undue risk to society.”

The Mounties have not said what motivated the attacks.

Police believe some victims were targeted, but others were chosen at random.