Police confirmation of Christine Wood’s death highlights the pervasive victimization of indigenous women in Canadian society, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson said Monday.
There is a message that “it is OK to do this to indigenous women and girls,” she said.
Her words followed remarks by Winnipeg police, who say they are now certain the 21-year-old is dead.
Their investigation has now turned to locating her body.
Wood disappeared on the evening of Aug. 19, 2016 after leaving a Winnipeg hotel where she was staying with her family. She was visiting from the Oxford House First Nation in northern Manitoba and never returned to her hotel room after an evening out with friends.
Brett Ronald Overby, 30, was charged with second-degree murder on Friday. Forensic investigators spent several days combing through his Winnipeg home in March. They found DNA evidence that Wood most likely died there.
None of the charges against him have been proven in court.
“Whoever is in this man’s life should have intervened, (and) should have told him that this is wrong,” an emotional North Wilson told a news conference on Monday. “Society for some reason gave him the message that it is OK to do this to an indigenous woman, an indigenous, beautiful, loved girl. It has to stop.”
Sgt. John O'Donovan of the Winnipeg homicide unit would not specify what makes police so certain Wood is dead, saying only there is not even a “one in 20 trillion chance” she's alive.
“We literally left no stone unturned. We checked that house from top to bottom,” he said. “Not only was she present, but she was killed within that house.”
O'Donovan called the investigation “extremely difficult,” saying police required information from multiple telecom companies to determine what electronic devices and social media accounts she may have been using. Wood’s parents and friends sent countless texts and made multiple phone calls in the days and weeks after her disappearance.
“There were some blatant places that we had to go, and people that we had to speak to,” he said. “It was pointing in the direction of 341 Burrows, and the person who lived there.”
Police said Wood had no contact with Overby prior to the night she disappeared.
Wood’s cousin-in-law Robert Sneep said he would pass by Overby’s home regularly while desperately hunting for his missing relative over the course of eight months.
“We would drive by here seven nights a week. At least three, four times a night,” he told CTV News on Sunday.
North Wilson read a statement from Wood's parents, George and Melinda. It said the past eight months since their daughter disappeared have been the most difficult of their lives.
They thanked friends and family in Winnipeg, and at those at home in Oxford House, who joined the lengthy search from their daughter.
“The love and kindness we have experienced has helped carry our family through this terrible time. We are grateful for the Winnipeg Police Service's efforts to find our daughter and are hopeful for some form of justice,” the statement said.
Wood’s name joins a lengthy list of missing or murdered indigenous women. A vigil for is to be held in
Winnipeg on Wednesday. It’s expected to be well attended by those who have buried family members, as well as those who hold out hope that their loved ones will one day come home.
“This represents them too,” said North Wilson. “This represents their plight.”
With a report from CTV’s Jill Macyshon in Winnipeg
