Louise Laderoute, left, and Irene Jacknife, right, died in the 1970s.
Louise Laderoute, left, and Irene Jacknife, right, died in the 1970s.
On Jul. 30, 1975, an unidentified female was found dead in the North Saskatchewan River. An autopsy determined she had drowned several days before the discovery of her body, and her death wasn’t deemed suspicious. Investigative techniques of the time, which didn’t include DNA analysis, were unable to identify her. She was buried in an Edmonton cemetery.
She has now been identified as 24-year-old Louise Laderoute from Papaschase First Nation. She was reported missing from Edmonton.
On Jun. 11, 1976, an unidentified female died outside an Edmonton address. An autopsy determined the woman’s death was due to medical causes, and was not deemed suspicious. Again, investigators were unable to identify the deceased, and she was buried in an Edmonton cemetery.
She has been identified as 30-year-old Irene Jacknife. She was reported missing from Drayton Valley.
Both women were identified through DNA matches with familial samples submitted to the RCMP National DNA Data Bank.
In August of 2023, the EPS Missing Persons Unit partnered with the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Project Match, a review of all EPS’ historical unidentified human remains investigations. These two files were identified as the first to be examined thanks to support from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women (IAAW) and the City of Edmonton’s Indigenous Relations Office.
As DNA samples were not collected in the 1970s, the only way to obtain DNA for testing was to exhume the remains. On Sep. 27, 2023 and Oct. 4, 2023, with the oversight of two Elders to perform sacred ceremonies, the bodies were exhumed from the two Edmonton cemeteries where they had been buried nearly 50 years ago. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and an external forensic anthropologist then reviewed the full reports from the initial autopsies, re-examined the remains and collected samples containing DNA, which the EPS sent for forensic testing, DNA extraction and comparison analysis.
The EPS Missing Persons Unit currently has 20 unsolved unidentified human remains files dating back to 1979. Project Match will continue to review these files with support from the RCMP National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
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