The family of Loretta Saunders is asking for an explanation after a photo of the murdered woman recently appeared in an online advertisement.
“When I saw it, my reaction was shock because I didn’t expect to see something like that,” said Lisa Webb, a friend of the Saunders family who helped search for the missing girl in February. “We wanted to use (the photo) in a happy way, not for somebody to get ahead.”
The ad was posted to Kijiji on Dec. 26 by someone looking for roommates. It was viewed more than 200 times before Kijiji removed the ad and banned the user from the website.
“We’ll do everything in our power to make sure that this group doesn’t do that again,” said Shawn McIntyre, a representative of Kijiji Canada.
Saunders, a 26-year-old student at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, went missing on Feb. 13. Her body was found on the side of a New Brunswick highway almost two weeks later.
Her former roommates, Victoria Henneberry and Blake Leggette, were charged with first-degree murder.
Saunders had met the two through an online ad for roommates much like the one that recently used her photo.
Saunders’ family has called the photo “morbid” and is demanding justice, but police say use of the image is not criminal.
“These images are widely available on the Internet,” said Const. Pierre Bourdages of the Halifax Regional Police. “It is of poor taste, but there’s nothing to show that there was actual intent from the poster.”
Saunders was an Inuk woman, originally from Labrador. Her death sparked rallies across Canada for justice for missing and murdered aboriginal women.
So far, the federal government has resisted calls to start a national inquiry into the matter.
More than 1,100 aboriginal women have been murdered or gone missing since 1980.
Saunders’ case isn’t unique. In September, a dating website based in Asia used a photo of Rehtaeh Parson as promotion, unaware that the Nova Scotia girl had died six months before.
With a report from CTV Atlantic
