Woman recounts 'horrific' gunpoint kidnapping at MMIWG Inquiry in Edmonton

Forced to lie on the ground with her hands tied and a gun pushed into her back, Virginia Littlewolfe-Hunter thought she was about to die.

Kidnapped and attacked 50 years ago, her recollection was as vividas if it happened yesterday.

"I'm here today to tell you about my horrific story of survival," she told the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and Girls, holding its community hearings in Edmonton.

Littlewolfe-Hunter was shaking at times as she recounted her ordeal during testimony on Wednesday.

• Victim's brother questions police responses to MMIWG cases during hearings in Edmonton

She was 15 at the time, and she and her friend, Shirley, were trying to get back to their home community of Onion Lake First Nation, north of Lloydminster.

With no other way to get homefrom North Battleford on that hot August day, they walked to Highway 16 to try to get a ride.

A car pulled over, and the driver said he was headed to Lloydminster. They jumped in.

Everything seemed to be OK at first, and the girls even dozed off at one point on the drive.

'All I could hear was Shirley screaming'

But things took a harrowing turn nearLloydminster, when the driver turned off the highway and went down a gravel road towards a wooded area.

At first, he handed the girls sandwiches and went for a walk. When he returned, he had a rope and a gun.

Littlewolfe-Hunter was ordered to the back of the car. Her friend was taken to the front and tied to the bumper.

'He left us for dead'

7 years ago

Duration 3:34

Virginia Littlewolfe-Hunter recounts at the National Inquiry into MMIWG the attack and kidnapping she and her friend endured at age 15.

"All I could hear was Shirley screaming and crying," she told the inquiry.

All she could see was the licence plate on the back of the car.

"I heard an almighty voice saying to me to, keep the numbers, remember these numbers," she recalled.

The man came back and pulled Littlewolfe-Hunter off the ground at gunpoint. She was eventually tripped and left in a small lake.

She heard more screaming from her friend, who by then had been tied to a tree and was being attacked with a tire wrench.

'He's trying to kill me'

The kidnapper returned to Littlewolfe-Hunter and tried to choke her.

The voice in her head spoke again. "He's trying to kill me, you have to play dead."

She felt like she was drowning andstayed still until he took his hands off her neck. She heard the car drive away.

When she was sure it wasn't coming back, she searched for her friend, calling her name repeatedly.

She finally found her in a field.

"She had blood all over her face," Littlewolfe-Hunter said.

She said Shirley told her she had been sexually assaulted, and had given her permission to tell the inquiry.

Memorizing licence plate led to arrest

The only thing they could think of was to walk to nearby farm.

"It was the longest walk ever," she said. "We had no shoes."

A farmer called 911.

The plate number Littlewolfe-Hunter had memorized helped police track down the driver in B.C.

She later picked him out of a police lineup. He was charged and convicted of kidnapping and assault, eventually servedtwo years less a day.

A sentence Littlewolfe-Hunter described as appalling, considering the crimes.

"He left us for dead," she said.

The trauma led to years of addiction problems, said Littlewolfe-Hunter, who told the inquiry her friend was never the same again, in part because of head injuries from the wrench attack.

Audience members in tears

That's why her friend couldn't be at the inquiry herself, said Littlewolfe-Hunter, who occasionally reached for tissues to wipe tears.

Some people in the audience did the same as they listened.

"I'm just thinking of that little 15-year-old girl, what she survived," said elder Pauline Paulson, who is attending the hearings to offer support.

Paulson said she admired the courage it took to speak before the inquiry.

Now sober, a mother and grandmother, Littlewolfe-Hunter said she hopes her experience will lead to more trauma support for other people.

Not just counselling but specific support groups for women.

The inquiry presented her with an eagle feather after her testimony, to help with her healing.

The hearings in Edmonton will wrap up on Thursday.