(Gatineau police Sgt. Jean-Paul Le May Wednesday asking the public for information that may solve the murder of Kelly Morrisseau Dec. 10, 2006.)
Kenneth Jackson
APTN National News
Imagine being seven months pregnant and trying to save, not only yourself, but your baby from a man with a knife inside of a car on a frigid December night in a deserted parking lot of a national park and there’s not a single person around to hear your cries for him to stop.
It’s unimaginable.
But Kelly Morrisseau lived it. But she wouldn’t survive.
Neither would her baby on that day: Dec. 10, 2006.
On Saturday, it will be 10 years since police believe a man took both of their lives.
Wednesday, Gatineau police asked the public once again for help trying to find the killer.
“This extremely violent homicide hit our entire community, as well as Kelly Morrisseau’s family,” said Sgt. Jean-Paul Le May at a media conference just steps from where Morrisseau was found.
The Ojibway woman was from Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba but had moved to Ottawa in the years before her death with other family members, including her three children.
She had been living in the Vanier community, not too far from Parliament Hill when she was last seen alive around 4 a.m. on Montfort Street.
Witnesses told police she was seen with a man getting into a car, possibly a 1985-1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera or Calais.
That man remains the sole suspect in Morrisseau’s murder, said Le May.
Police believe the suspect and his car could have been seen in the area in the days before the murder, as police believe he was trolling for street-level sex trade workers.
He drove Morrisseau across the Ottawa River to the Gatineau Park in the P3 parking lot near Gamelin Street.
She was found there at about 5:40 a.m. by a man walking his dog, still clinging to life. But she died in the Hull hospital about an hour later from stab wounds.
Le May said Morrisseau fought “vigorously” to save her and the baby inside her. So much so, they believe her killer may have been wounded.
Investigators at the time tracked his movements following the murder to an area close by. Police believe the killer used the lane reserved for emergency vehicles between Promenade de la Gatineau and Boulevard Saint-Raymond. They hope by releasing that information Wednesday it may help jog someone’s memory who may have seen the car.
Items belonging to Morrisseau and other evidence were found behind a business at 115 Boulevard du Plateau.
Police also recovered items from a nearby brook, as well.
They are not releasing what was found but hope it helps people remember something that day they may have felt was pointless.
“Ten years, after this dreadful event, there are people who still have information crucial to this investigation, who never contacted the police for fear of being identified or that their information may not be relevant,” said Le May.
He added even the smallest piece of information may help.
Morriseau’s remaining children are left without a mother. Every year before Christmas they are reminded of how she was taken from them. Her two youngest were adopted by a family, while the eldest is now a young adult.
APTN knows the family that adopted the two boys and has previously spoken to the adoptive father who asked at this time last year to remain anonymous.
“This time of the year, they have heavy hearts, especially with the uncertainty and general lack of information about progress in the investigation,” said their adoptive father last year. “The children are becoming concerned that Kelly’s death will be forgotten by the system as they are becoming aware of the challenges faced by Aboriginal people in this country.”
Their mom is one of over 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous women in the last three decades according to statistics released by the RCMP two years ago. That number has climbed every year since.
Morrisseau’s aunt, Glenda Morrisseau is also on that list. She was murdered in 1991 in Winnipeg. Her case remains unsolved, as well.
During the media conference a smell of sage filled the air. Indigenous women could be seen behind reporters and police with a bundle. They also had pictures of Kelly and Glenda.
Bridget Tolley was one of them. She tries to be at the murder scene every year to honour Morrisseau and all the other women who have died.
“We’ve been doing a lot of this. We keep doing this. This is the only way we feel we may get answers by remembering them and showing their pictures,” said Tolley, founder of the Sisters in Spirit vigils.
