How CBC investigated unsolved cases of missing and murdered indigenous women

CBC News spent months checking into reports of missing and murdered indigenouswomen in Canada and trying to locate family members.

Several individuals and organizations have compiled lists of cases in Canada, themost comprehensive being a list developed by Ottawa researcher MaryannePearce, which she made public in 2013when she published her doctoral thesis in law entitled An Awkward Silence: Missing and Murdered Vulnerable Women and the Canadian Justice System.

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That list included missing and murderedwomen of allethnicitiesover approximately four decades.

She continued to update the list for a forthcoming book with University of Manitoba Press andshared an updated list of unsolved cases involving missing and murderedindigenous women with the CBC in December 2014. The CBC then beganassessing the cases and trying to find and interview as many family members aspossible.

Through checks with police, families, community leaders, organizations and publicsources, CBC News came up with about 230 confirmed cases of missing andmurdered indigenous women and girls. More than 110 families have beeninterviewed about the cases so far.

Those interviews allowed CBC to compile data on many of the cases, including thecommunity each woman is from, where she was slain or went missing, how thefamily feels about the efficacy of the police investigations and other factors.

In a handful of cases involving deaths, police have either closed investigations orconcluded there is not enough evidence to know whether a murder took place.

We have included these instances only when family members told us they stillbelieved foul play was a possibility.

The project is ongoing. CBC calls on anyone with information about these cases,as well as family members who have so far not been interviewed, to contact us asmmiw@cbc.ca.