By Tyler Marr

Year in Review: Community comes together to search for Ashley Morin

Dec 30, 2018 | 1:00 PM

Randy Bird, the uncle of Ashley Morin, said it will be a painful Christmas for her family with still no word on Morin’s whereabouts.

For five months, friends and family have worked alongside RCMP investigators, including the RCMP Major Crime Unit North, to appeal for information into the 31-year-old woman’s disappearance, which is considered suspicious.

Morin was last in contact with her family in early July. Since July 10, there has been no mobile phone usage, no social media usage and no bank account activity connected to her.

“It’s going to be a hard holiday season to get through,” Bird said. “She is still missing, and we haven’t heard anything positive. The mother is still struggling to keep as strong as she can, but she is still a mother and that’s still her baby girl.”   

His comments came prior to a community search in early December, one of many that have occurred since August.

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Bird said the family is not giving up hope in the search.

“We’ve been doing it as often as we could on weekends and in evenings, whenever we receive any kind of tip, so we as a family are not going to stop until something comes about,” he said.

This summer, Morin’s family held a dinner and auction fundraiser to help cover the costs of hiring a private investigator. Any money that was raised over the amount to hire the investigator went toward a cash reward.

Her cousin Stephanie Bird, at the time, said Morin was living in North Battleford when she disappeared and said it’s “completely out of character” for her not to contact her family. Morin was previously employed at a local casino and took a leave prior to her disappearance, Bird said.

In September, around 100 people gathered to search for Morin on Finlayson Island in the wake of “several” tips the family received.

Bird has said the family received a tip they believed to be quite credible just days prior and didn’t want to wait to act.

Two RCMP officers attended the search at one point but would not comment as the case is under investigation. 

A further appeal to the public was made by on behalf of the family in October at the start of the 2018 Sisters in Spirit walk that took place in North Battleford in October.

Family friend Krista Fox called on anyone, especially those who live in rural communities, to look around.

“Anything that doesn’t look familiar, please, please get in touch with the RCMP,” she told a crowd gathered outside the Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre.

Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre counsellor Robin Belanger said the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women is a “Canadian human rights emergency.”

Morin is described as Indigenous, about 5-foot-2-inches tall and weighing 110 pounds. She has long black hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing grey sweatpants, a black T-shirt with white writing on it, a black hat and sunglasses.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact the Battlefords RCMP or Crime Stoppers.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr