Carol King, originally from Mattis Point, was murdered in Saskatchewan in 2011. Her sister Brenda is frustrated with how police have handled the case.
Originally from Mattis Point, Ms. King had been living in the Herschel area of Saskatchewan for about three years prior to her Aug. 6, 2011 disappearance. Three weeks later, the 40-year-old woman's body was discovered at an abandoned property not far from her home.
“Somebody out there knows something,” Brenda said Monday from her home in Nova Scotia, frustration evident in her voice.
“You think they would feel something and come forward.”
It’s been about six months since she’s heard from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan on the status of the investigation.
“We don’t hear much, and usually I have to call for updates and it’s always the same thing. They say they’re working on it but we don’t hear anything.”
Not knowing what happened to her sister, how she died or who is responsible, continues to haunt her family.
“It’s not just one life that was taken away. Our whole family got torn apart from all this. Everyday we think about it, what happened to her.”
Lately, those thoughts have resulted in anger.
“I’m really angry with the police and how they handled the situation five years ago,” she said. “They didn’t do anything. They didn’t listen to my sister’s plea. They didn’t listen to her cry for help and they didn’t listen to me when I told them something was wrong.”
Ms. King had contacted the RCMP in Rosetown over concerns for her safety prior to her disappearance.
Brenda was with her in Saskatchewan two weeks before she went missing. She was there when there was someone on her sister’s property and there when she went to police to file a statement that she feared for her life.
“They didn’t do anything about it.”
Ten days after Brenda returned home, her sister missed an appointment with police. She has a recording of a message the police left for her sister, saying because she failed to show up they were going to close the case.
“This is after she already sent her plea in that she feared for her life,” said Brenda, who wonders why they didn’t check on Carol then.
Ms. King had always kept in regular contact with her family, so when they were unable to reach her they knew something was wrong. Brenda contacted police and said the response she got was her sister was on a joy ride and had been spotted in Banff, Alberta. Brenda called hotels there, but her sister wasn’t there.
“They didn’t take me serious.”
So Brenda went back to Saskatchewan to look for her sister and organized searches. One was in the area where Ms. King’s body was later found, something she finds strange.
“I hold the Rosetown police department accountable for what happened, but there’s nothing we can do, absolutely nothing.”
When asked if she has taken any steps to file a complaint against the force, Brenda said didn’t know where to start, but that she may have to investigate it more.
A request to speak with someone with the RCMP in Saskatchewan about the investigation was not returned as of deadline.
