B.C.’s police watchdog has found that members of the Vanderhoof RCMP were not criminally responsible after a “vulnerable” Indigenous woman went missing in October 2023 and was found dead on Nov. 5 of that year.
The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) was tasked with deciding whether the RCMP could have done more to find the woman who went missing Oct. 11, 2023, more than three weeks before her body was found in thick bushes just 700 metres from where she was last seen. Foul play was not suspected, and hypothermia was deemed the cause of death.
A civilian witness had contacted the IIO to request the investigation into Vanderhoof RCMP’s response to a wellness check on the woman the day she went missing. The unnamed witness was concerned that efforts to locate the woman before her death were inadequate, according to a public notice issued by the IIO on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
Police officers had attended the woman’s residence and spoke with an occupant who had not seen the woman the previous day. Officers went to a second address where she might have been and unsuccessfully tried to examine the contents of a cell phone belonging to the woman, which had been found smashed outside her residence.
At the home where the woman had been staying, officers arrested a person for breaching their court conditions to not be there. They returned to the detachment and started a missing persons investigation.
Search and Rescue operations were called, and the RCMP also put out several notifications to other officers in B.C. to check places the woman frequented.
An RCMP helicopter was unable to be used due to mechanical issues.
Crucial to the case was that a canine unit was also not utilized. The police dog handler had told an officer that the dog would not be of use because of the number of people in the area of the search mission who would have thrown off any scent trail.
“It was reported that this conflicting human scent would have made any tracking by the dog impossible,” the IIO’s decision states.
A Prince George drone operator was contacted and helped with the search around the woman’s home, to no avail.
Throughout that same afternoon on Oct. 11, police officers in various parts of the province, including Prince George and Fraser Lake, knocked on doors and continued the search.
The search continued from Oct. 12 to 14 with a search and rescue helicopter, social media utilization and officers following up on tips.
Various other search activities took place until Nov. 5, when another civilian witness was searching an area and found some personal items with the missing woman’s name on them. He advised the RCMP , who attended with a police dog.
Within 15 minutes of searching the area, the woman’s body was found.
An autopsy report from June 2024 said the woman had a small amount of methamphetamine in her system, and a pathologist concluded the substance may have left her less able to get out of the cold, leading to death by hypothermia.
The IIO acknowledged the record of Indigenous women in B.C. whose deaths have been highlighted by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“When a vulnerable, Indigenous woman goes missing in this province, exceptional efforts are warranted,” the watchdog said.
The IIO also acknowledged that the RCMP could have used its police dog sooner, even if it had a very slim chance of proving successful.
However, it ultimately found a lack of “wanton or reckless disregard” for the missing woman’s life, which would need to be established in order for the RCMP to be criminally culpable.
“The RCMP followed the policing standards in the province, which apply to these types of investigations. The evidence shows both the community and police took many steps to find (the woman),” the IIO said.
The matter will not be referred to Crown counsel for consideration of charges.