On the eve of Ashley Simpson's birthday, her parents learned that the RCMP ignored a call from hunters who found her belongings up a mountain near Canoe, BC. The pair were grouse hunting just weeks after Ashley's disappearance in 2016, and they discovered a pile of clothing on the ground which included pink shirts and jeans, CDs and makeup. Most ominously, they also discovered a piece of mail addressed to Ashley Simpson.
The couple shouted her name, but heard nothing. They weren't carrying cell phones, and didn't want to tamper with the evidence, so they rushed down the mountain and alerted the RCMP.
"I got really bad vibes," Kendra Toner told Indigenous News.
The RCMP did nothing, according to Toner who went back up the mountain a couple of weeks later and found the pile scattered along the road, and run over by cars. She didn't see the piece of mail. Could the cops have picked it up? Unlikely, considering the pile of belongings were still there.
Flash forward nearly five years. As Cindy and John prepare to release memorial balloons and serve cake on Ashley's birthday, the wounds reopen for the couple who have been looking for their daughter who is presumed murdered. The cops remain mum, only saying that it is an ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, the community of Enderby-Salmon Arm remains on edge, as sex workers are warned against contacting a local man whose parents own a farm where the remains of Traci Genereaux were found not long ago. Four other women, including Ashley, remain missing in the community.
It's hard to imagine, but Cindy and John just learned about what the couple had found up the mountain. Cindy came upon the story when she was reading posts about the case on the Internet.
Soon, volunteers at Wings of Mercy will use their drones and ATVs to investigate the area.
Unfortunately, the weather is not on their side. A renewed search may not be possible til spring when the fifth year anniversary of Ashley's disappearance looms.
And so my family continues to wait. And hope the findings are still up there, not scattered to the wind.
When I read this story, I was sad and angry.
Sad for the family, and angry at the cops who never really took this case seriously.
We need answers not stone wall.
And Ashley and the other women deserve better than silence and sloppy police work.
It's inexcusable that there was no follow-up. It was an ongoing case at that point.
ReplyDelete