CJOB News Team reporting
7/13/2012
RCMP and Winnipeg Police released details about their Project Devote investigational team this morning.
In 2009, the Manitoba Integrated Task Force for Murdered and Missing Women spent two years looking into 84 investigations involving unsolved female homicides and missing persons cases.
After two years, that list was whittled down to 28 cases, and the mandate broadened to include men.
The criteria for making the final list became those considered at high risk of becoming victims of violent crimes because of substance abuse problems, mental health issues, involvement in the sex trade, transient lifestyles or frequent hitchhiking.
Project Devote was created in 2011 too look into those 28 cases.
The oldest case dates back to 1961. Most of the victims are female, but one is a male. The youngest victims are 15 - the oldest 47.
24 Winnipeg police and RCMP personnel have been assigned to the project, including 18 officers, two analysts and three data entry personnel.
The project started last year, but few details were released, and police were criticized for the veil of secrecy surrounding it. But after sharing the information with families, the information was released publicly today.
No arrests have been made yet. Hiebert says there is no physical evidence to suggest one person is responsible for more than one of these cases.
Anyone with information about these cases is asked to call the Project Devote Tip Line at 1-888-673-3316.
The 28 victims being investigated by Project Devote (with ages):
Jean Mocharski - 43
Debra Richardson - 17
Marie Banks - 18
Constance Cameron - 24
Cheryl Duck - 15
Charlene Orsuluk - 17
Cathy Williams - 21
Susan Holens - 15
Glenda Morrisseau - 19
Jamie McGuire - 20
William Weinbender - 46
Evelyn Stewart - 25
Tania Marsden - 18
Noreen Taylor - 32
Therena Silva - 35
Felicia Solomon - 16
Nicolle Hands - 31
Sylvia Guiboche - 20
Irma Murdock - 32
Sunshine Wood - 16
Cynthia Audy - 27
Tatia Ulm - 39
Myrna Letandre - 36
Fonassa Bruyere - 17
Crystal Saunders - 24
Claudette Osborne - 21
Cherisse Houle - 17
Hillary Wilson - 18
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