It’s been over a month since the body of 29 year old Shawnee Inyallie was discovered in Delta, B.C. near the Fraser River.
But her family is still searching for answers.
Patrick Pete never gave up hope while looking for his missing sister.
For almost four months, Pete and his family organized searches and handed out posters.
“The searches, they helped keep hope alive,” he said. “If we didn’t find her then we had hope that we would be able to find her somewhere alive and well.”
Inyallie was homeless, but regularly returned to her hometown in Chawathil First Nation in Hope, B.C., to visit family.
She was last seen on July 17 in a homeless camp in Delta, B.C.
Hunters discovered her body in a marsh by the Fraser River on Nov. 4.
“Not knowing where she was, what she was doing, how she was, and now that we know, it all hurts,” he said. “One of the hardest things was at work I had to pull down the posters and it just brought a big realization that all of the searches didn’t bring up anything.
“Now there isn’t anything.”
In late November Pete received a worrisome phone call from the RCMP detachment in Hope.
At the time he had been trying to contact the investigating officer without any luck.
“Everything came together real weird because we had been trying to get in contact with the RCMP for almost a month,” he said. “And then out of nowhere they were in for an urgent meeting and I kind of had a feeling.
“We had to push them extra hard for them to give anything back to us and I don’t really think it should have been like that.”
Pete said he’s frustrated.
“When I’d go to the homeless camps or if I was putting up posters, the people that weren’t homeless they were always in a hurry, they didn’t stop to help, they wouldn’t look at the posters. It was the homeless people that showed the most compassion.
“Everybody has to realize that it doesn’t matter if someone is homeless, if they are a drug addict, an alcoholic, they are somebody’s people. She was our sister, she was missing.”
Although the search for Shawnee is over, her family is now searching for answers.
“They said there was no foul play, but we are waiting on the toxicology report. It’s hard to get passed thinking that she could have done this to herself, or it was an accident.
”It leaves me confused as to what happened to her.”
Results of the toxicology report are expected to take three to six months.
I care this happened to her.
I care this happened to her.