The Winnipeg Police Service has found no foul play involved with the death of Mary Yellowback, whose body was discovered at a city recycling depot in September 2018.
“The investigation is now complete and it has been determined that her death was not a homicide,” police said in a news release Tuesday.
The 33-year-old was in the city for medical appointments from her home in Gods River First Nation (Manto Sipi Cree Nation), a fly-in community about 500 km north of Winnipeg.
Her family said she was married, had six children, and was a home care worker.
Yellowback was last seen in the downtown area Sept. 27, 2018 – the night before workers found her body among recycling material and called police.
At the time, her death was classified as suspicious. Now police say it’s not but haven’t released details on how she died.
Her family feared she’d become another statistic in the growing number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
They told a news conference they were grateful her body was found, as other families were still searching.
That includes the family of Yellowback’s cousin, Sunshine Wood, who disappeared in February 2004 from the downtown Winnipeg St. Regis Hotel.
