It’s been eight years since Happy Charles was last seen on security camera footage at the Prince Albert Collegiate Institute at midnight.
In support of Charles, a public demonstration was held Thursday afternoon outside the Prince Albert Police station on 15th Street. Demonstrators held signs and posters with images of Happy Charles and several other Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
Charles’ stepfather, Carson Poitras, spoke to the media at the event saying the family is disappointed with the progress.
“Frustrated, angry, so many different feelings went behind this because the things that (should) have been happening are not happening and I just got ticked off. I decided I’m going to go down to PA police and do a rally so that Happy’s name gets out there for the anniversary. Not only that but to have people stand with our posters on this main street rather than going up to PACI and up that way where we traditionally go where nobody sees us.”
After being last seen on the surveillance footage, Charles has not been located to this day and is considered a missing person. She was last seen wearing white shoes, sweat pants, a long dark jacket over top of a leather jacket, a dark baseball cap with a black backpack and a white plastic bag. She was also wearing dark framed glasses.
According to a press release from the Prince Albert Police Service, the investigation into Charles’ disappearance has explored multiple leads and has included more than 120 tips.
Poitras says the family is just wanting closure about what happened to Charles.
“The things that we were promised from the PA police that didn’t happen. We had a meeting last year, and things just didn’t transpire as they should have. Some of the things our investigator has done, which I won’t go into. We’re just maddening because we still don’t have answers after eight years. Some of the comments are that we need a little bit longer to get some more answers. We need to do our things in a proper manner in order to get a conviction. We’re not looking for a conviction. All we’re looking for is to bring our daughter home. Just find her, bring her home. Do that at least just so we can have that closure.
“Happy is a mom and she was always named right. She was happy, and she liked to make her kids and her grandkids laugh. She always liked to bring that sort of light into the room when it came to her kids and the grandkids. We miss her dearly and her kids miss her. March has been a really tough month for us because her birthday was March 22nd. Eight years is a long time and she’s a human, she’s a person and she needs to be treated as such (and) not a number. We need that compassion to bring her home.”
Prince Albert Chief of Police Patrick Nogier was in attendance for the demonstration and thanked the participants for their activism in raising public awareness for the cases of Happy Charles and other MMIWG across Saskatchewan.
“I think that any attempt that we make to shed new light on the situation is wanted both from the investigative point of view and certainly from the family point of view.” Nogier said in an interview with the media. “I can’t even begin to imagine what experiencing the loss of a loved one is like. What I can tell you is that I have the utmost faith and confidence in the investigators that we have assigned to the file. We specifically put individuals in there with a skill set that we think is going to help progress the file.”
Nogier also urged the public to bring forward any information they have about Charles or any other missing person.
“We have those files be primarily assigned to our criminal investigations division. We have one individual, one sergeant who is responsible for the historical missing person files. We’ve got 14 files that we’ve been working on. Each one of those files has a family member and a loved one attached to it, and we are trying to do what we can to ensure that we’re providing the families with updates when they’re available. The unfortunate part about some of the investigations is that sometimes the information and updates are nothing more than an update since it continues to be an investigative file with not a lot of leads. Anything that we get from the public with respect to a new viable lead and compare it with the information that we know in the background that could lead to something that can actually be tangibly looked in, we’ll take those steps to do that.”
The Prince Albert Police Service is continuing to investigate and search for Happy Charles. Police is urging anyone with information on the whereabouts of Happy Charles to contact police at 306-953-4222. Anonymous tips can be provided to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
