Missing: Annie Yassie was 13 when she disappeared over 40 years ago
Last seen with a man decades older, Sayisi Dene teen vanished into the dark near Churchill, Man.
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But when Eva asks her questions, Annie doesn't answer. When Eva tries to touch her, Annie can't be reached.
"It really disturbs me, these dreams," Eva Yassie says, taking a long drag on a hand-rolled cigarette. "I call her name and see if she can. She just looks at me and smiles,and fades away. I can't get no answers."
Questions have haunted Eva Yassie for 42 years, since June 22, 1974, when Annie disappeared into the nighta few kilometres outside Churchill, Man.
She was just a kid, 13, just back to Dene Village from residential school.She was drunk and witha grown man decades older. He was also drunk. They got into a cab and headed to the nearby gravel pits, a common hot spot for bonfires and parties.
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Hours later, the man returned to town in a taxi. He wasmoredrunk than beforeandwithout Annie. She has not been seen or heard from since. As for the man last seen with her, police and later Eva confronted him about that night.
"He says 'I don't remember. I don't remember nothing. I was drunk,'" Yassie said. "But he couldn't even look me in the eye."
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"I think I drink to forget," she says, simply.
But she doesn't forget her sister, nor does she want to. She remembers the small things. Annie loved Christmas. Annie loved to sew doll clothes. Annie loved denim. Annie loved the "hippie" look of the day.
"She used to sleepwalk, too," Yassie says of Annie. "I used to have to keep an eye on her in case she walked out of the building."
Yassie says police once theorized Annie might have been "sleepwalking" the night she disappeared. It was atheory they later abandoned.
The saddest part is not knowing not knowing what happened and why it happened. And not being able to bury her.- Eva Yassie, Annie Yassie's sister
Through the years, Yassie has returned to the gravel pits.
"Walking, I did a lot of walking" there, looking for any sign of her sister. Once late at night, she saw a shoe hanging from a tree ashoe that was identical to her Annie's. The next morning, however, it was gone.
Other times she sees someone who looks like her sister, and all Yassie can do is stare at them.
Then there are her dreams. Usually it's just Annie. Sometimes Annie's with a group of strangers. Yassie says her friend has these dreams, too. Again, Annie isstanding there, again saying nothing. These dreams, Yassie says, also disturbher friend.
But the worst, Yassie says, is simply not knowing the truth.
"The saddest part is not knowing not knowing what happened and why it happened. And not being able to bury her," Yassie says. "That's what really bothers me."