It’s been 14 years since the body of 19-year-old Angel Carlick was discovered on a mountainside near Whitehorse.
The 19-year old Kaska woman was from Dease Lake in northern B.C. and moved to Whitehorse where she was a youth advocate who ran a dinner program for children.
Angel went missing in May of 2007.
“The last time we saw her we went with her to the place she was working downtown,” says her uncle William Carlick. “She was cooking up and she was serving soup. She was happy then, too.”
William says he copes with their deaths through ceremony.
“You just have to understand that we had time to share with them and when they leave whichever way happens we just got to continue because one day we’re going to make that journey too,” he said.
No one has been charged with Angel’s murder.
This past summer Yukon RCMP’s Historical Case Unit (HCU) appealed to the public for help, asking anyone with information concerning her homicide investigation to come forward.
Though he didn’t know her personally, Carlick’s case has stuck with Cst. Michael Simpson, an investigator with the unit.
“This is a young lady, she was 19, in the prime of her life. She was working at the time, graduating high school, she was moving on. I know she loved her mother, I know she loved her siblings tremendously,” he says.
“She was taken well before her time.”
Carlick was described as a caring person with a bright future ahead of her who set to graduate high school.
William Carlick remembers the last time he saw his niece.
“We went with her to the place she was working downtown. She was cooking up, and she was serving soup. She was happy then, too.”
Her remains were discovered nearly six months later on Nov. 9, 2007 by a walker in a wooded area on Pilot mountain near Whitehorse
While Carlick’s death was ruled a homicide, Simpson says the pathologist who examined her remains could not determine her cause of death.
It’s also not known if she died in the area where her body was found.
Angel Carlick’s mother, Wendy Carlick, was murdered in 2017 along with her friend Sarah MacIntosh in 2017 in Whitehorse. Wendy was known in the community as a missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls advocate after the murder of her daughter.
Everett Chief is currently in jail awaiting trial.
“I manage to cope with all that has happened by accepting things I have no control,” says William, reflecting on what happened to his niece and sister.
“You just have to understand that we had time to share with them and when they leave, which ever way happens, we just got to continue because one day we’re going to make that journey too,” he says.
He adds ceremony has also helped him come to terms with their deaths.
“It’s given me an understanding of what happened to my relatives when they left the way they did, and how to accept it in a good way.”
No justice
As to why Carlick’s case has never been solved after so many years, Simpson says there have been challenges.
For instance, he says Carlick was last seen with two males before she disappeared who have never been identified.
“I think they would hold the answers, or at least begin telling me where to look next,” he says.
Simpson says there’s also a lack of evidence in her case, like DNA profiles and witnesses, not to mention a long span of time between when she was last seen and when her remains were found.
“There was a gap there which I think really put the investigators at a disadvantage,” Simpson says.
“For me, moving forward, 14, 15 years now, time is very much an enemy. Memories fade, people move on, physical places are no longer there.
“Unfortunately, sometimes despite all our best efforts…(it’s) just really difficult for some cases.”
Simpson is hopeful appealing to the public for assistance with Carlick’s case will yield new answers.
“We’ve had a lot of people willing to talk to me. They’ve given me a lot of their time and help, and I would like for it to continue if it would,” he says.
“Hopefully (it will) bring this matter from my end to justice, but we need the public’s assistance to do that, and (to not) forget about her.”
Though there’s never been any justice for Carlick, her uncle William says it’s important to move forward.
“For us, we just find a way to move on, and deal with it in a good way, and try to find strength where we couldn’t.”
If you have any information that may assist in Angel Carlick’s investigation please contact the M Division Historical Case Unit by telephone (867) 667-5550 or email [email protected]
