A search along sections of Highway 1 towards Boston Bar for a missing Hope woman yielded no results, a relief to the family that also leaves them with unanswered questions.
Just over a dozen people came bundled up in warm clothing to Hope’s Memorial Park Sunday, eager to lend a hand in searching for Shawnee Inyallie. Since her disappearance in late July, several searches along local highways and river banks have been organized by the family of the 29-year-old Indigenous woman.
Searchers came from Hope, Chilliwack and even as far away as Port Coquitlam.
Shawnee Inyallie’s mother Rena Monroe told The Hope Standard she has been sending missing person posters out across the country and even abroad, as well as speaking with travelers who pass through local gas stations about her daughter.
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“We did not find anything. Although that leaves us with unanswered questions yet again, it is still a relief not to find her harmed in any way,” Patrick Pete, Inyallie’s brother and organizer of the search, wrote in a text message. “This still gives us hope that she can still be found safe.”
Although Pete wrote that the turnout of volunteers wasn’t as large as he had hoped, he thanked those who showed up profusely. “My family and I will be forever grateful to these people,” he wrote.
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The Hope RCMP is still conducting an active investigation said Staff Sgt. Karol Rehdner, and they continue to update Inyallie’s mother on the case. “We continue to work to the utmost of our ability to bring closure to this, whatever that closure is going to be.”
With nearly four months since her disappearance, Rehdner said officers, many of whom knew Shawnee and had frequent contact with her, are increasingly concerned.
“We have our concerns because she was not a person that remained out of contact with any person — be it police, be it any health agency or group, and family….So this is obviously far outside the norm that she would be out of contact for this length of time.”
Pete renewed a call he made in early November for media to keep publicizing information about missing people. He hopes constant media attention can lead to news tips, and for those who have information to have a conscience and share this.
“I’m pretty sure someone knows something and it becomes agonizing to have to live with the unknown,” he wrote.
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