Family looks for answers in 11-year-old unsolved murder

Valorie Smokeyday has lived with the pain of not knowing why her daughter was killed for the past 11 years – but she’s not giving up hope that she and her family will receive an answer.

Family and friends gathered for a memorial walk and graveside service to remember Melanie Dawn Geddes on Saturday. She was last seen at a house party a short walk from her Regina home in August of 2005.

The remains of the 24-year-old mother of three were discovered four months after her disappearance in a field 50 kilometers north of the city.

“In my heart I really feel that I have to know what happened,” Smokeyday told CTV Regina.

The RCMP and the Regina police continue to investigate the case as a homicide, but no suspects have been charged or officially connected to Geddes’ death.

Smokeyday hopes the opening of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which officially started on Sept. 1, will help raise awareness of the disproportionate level of violence across Canada’s indigenous communities and see more resources deployed to provide answers for grieving families who feel left in the dark.

An interim report is expected next fall, and the final report by the end of 2018.

“It’s always why, why, why,” she said. “All I know is that we’ve got different detectives working on it. They said they have tons of stuff to go through.”