Theron Morin is working on a memorial bench to honour his mother, whose death over 30 years ago remains an unsolved homicide.
Police found the body of 29-year-old Jean LaChance south of the Victoria Hospital in 1991.
“It’s a good thing to remember her by – because I don’t want her to just become a number,” said Morin.
“I want a more permanent reminder.”
In just two days, Morin raised the $2,173 needed to have the bench built out of Saskatoon. While he’s still confirming the details, he hopes to have her name and a memorial quote engraved on the bench.
Morin said the bench will likely be complete this year, but won’t be installed until springtime. It will be located along the Rotary Trail by the Alfred Jenkins Field House, near where LaChance was found.
“The community has been amazing, like I got donations from people I didn’t even know, people not even in my family. To raise those kinds of funds in less than two days was well beyond my expectations,” he said.
Morin said he brought up the idea at his most recent meeting with the police investigator, who assured him that a bench would be a touching way to honour his mother. He then reached out to the city for approval.
‘I’m not going to give up hope’
Morin was only six years old when LaChance died. He mostly remembers her laugh.
“Thankfully, I remember the good times,” he said.
“She liked to do family things, us and all of the kids. Picnics and family events like that. I just remember being with her and all of my older siblings at the time. We were never really inside from what I remember,” said Morin.
“If we were going somewhere, we were going somewhere together.”
From what others tell him, LaChance was outgoing and friends with everyone. Above all else, though, she cared about her family.
Morin is the only sibling that still lives in Prince Albert.
“I’m older than she was when she passed away. We all are now; we have been for a while now. It really makes you think, you know, she was so young.”
Now 37 years old, Morin said he’s the family’s main contact with the police. Even though it’s been 32 years since she died, he longs for closure.
“It’s just one those things that you obviously can’t really control too much, but you can’t help but be frustrated about it,” said Morin.
“I have complete faith in the police department to find who did it. I’m not going to give up hope. I’m not going to stop.”
Last month, on Sept. 14, the Prince Albert Police Service put out another call for information on the anniversary of LaChance’s death.
A joint statement from LaChance’s children said their aunt, specifically, “hopes to find closure in her lifetime” and that “there’s room for forgiveness.”
Anyone with information on LaChance’s death is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
