Family remembers Danita Big Eagle, pays tribute to other missing women

By BARB PACHOLIK, Leader-PostFebruary 12, 2010 9:03 PM

Dianne Big Eagle whose daughter Danita Big Eagle (shown in photos) went missing from Regina on Feb. 11, 2007.

Photograph by: Roy Antal, Leader-Post

REGINA — On a day devoted to love, a Regina family will gather to remember a beloved mother, daughter and sister who vanished three years ago and to also pay tribute to other missing women.

When she began planning the Miye Kiksuyapi Round Dance — meaning "Don't forget me" — for Valentine's Day, Dianne Big Eagle couldn't bring herself to host an event that would mark only the disappearance of her daughter Danita.

"I know how everyone else feels," she said of those she's met through Saskatchewan Sisters in Spirit, a group dedicated to missing persons. Among the invited speakers are families who still search and those whose missing relatives have been found dead or slain. Sunday's gathering will be held at Sacred Heart, 1380 Elphinstone St., beginning at 6 p.m., followed by a feast, speakers, and a round dance "for healing, wellness and awareness."

Danita Faith Big Eagle is one of 99 known, long-term missing persons in Saskatchewan, including 11 in Regina.

"Your normal like goes out the door," said Dianne Big Eagle. She lives with the question: "Are they going to find her today?"

Danita, then 22, disappeared from the lives of her family, including two young children, on Feb. 11, 2007. Her mother is now raising Danita's children, age six and three, who find comfort hugging a blanket with their mother's face on it.

"I tell them mom will come home when she's good and ready. In the meantime, grandma's here."

Sadly, Big Eagle knows much about loss — her own mother was murdered when Big Eagle was a child; she lost a child in infancy; and she is a victim of the residential school system. Her grandchildren are what keep her going when she starts to lose heart. She wonders if she hangs on too tightly to them, but she couldn't stand to lose them too.

Danita is the youngest of Big Eagle's five children — "my baby." She's also "a bit wild," added her mother, who worries about the harm that might have come to her. Big Eagle last heard from Danita around 10 p.m. on Feb. 11 three years ago when she phoned to say she was dropping off some money for her mother to hang onto for her. Big Eagle could hear loud music and voices in the background. Danita came by a short time later, then left again. She was last seen in the 800 block of Victoria Avenue.

Big Eagle has searched the streets of Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, stood on the steps of Parliament to bring attention to missing women, spoken at schools about making good choices, and heard plenty of stories about her daughter's possible fate. Until anything is certain, Big Eagle chooses to live with hope.

She recalls the missing women who have been found dead. "Theirs ended badly — but I still have a 50-50 chance she's still alive." At the same time, she can't ignore the other possibility.

During the recent searches for Carlene Walters, a 52-year-old Regina woman missing since Dec. 30, Big Eagle sympathized with her family. A part of her hoped the searchers might also stumble upon Danita. "There's a dread of the worst," she said.

Moments later, the optimism creeps back into Big Eagle's voice. "You haven't heard anything bad — so hope for the best."

bpacholik@leaderpost.canwest.com

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Body found, linked online to missing teen Poorman

By ANNE KYLE and JOE COUTURE, Leader-Post; with files from Barb Pacholik
April 20, 2009 8:2

REGINA — Police have not yet publicly identified the remains of a body found on Friday about half a block from where Tara-Lyn Poorman disappeared from a birthday party more than four months ago.

But on pages of social networking sites set up to promote the search for the missing 17-year-old, family and friends left posts over the weekend making a connection between the teen and the grisly discovery, and expressing hopes she will "rest in peace."

The creator of a Facebook group called "Finding Tara-Lyn Poorman," who identified himself as her brother Vance Kay, wrote "itz true she iz gone," along with an "RIP" for his "baby sis."

Similar posts were also available publicly on Twitter and Bebo pages.

Reached late on Sunday, Poorman's mother Shellyn Kay told the Leader-Post she had not received any official news and did not want to comment further.

Kay said she "didn't know what was going on" with the social website posts, adding she had not spoken to Vance.

Calls to others in Poorman's family and those who have spoken publicly about her disappearance in the past were not returned over the weekend.

Poorman was last seen at a residence in the 400 block of Halifax Street in December.

Police and her family have both offered rewards for her return.

The decomposing body of a woman was found Friday in the 300 block of Osler Street.

The body is believed to have been at a location in a yard in that area, hidden under a pile of snow, for some time, according to the Regina Police Service.

"We are continuing our investigation into a suspicious death in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Coroner,'' police spokeswoman Elizabeth Popowich told the Leader-Post Saturday.

Popowich said police were dispatched to the rear of the backyard of an Osler Street house just before 7:45 p.m. on Friday after receiving information of a person injured or deceased.

Police and emergency medical services attended the area and confirmed that an unidentified woman found in the backyard was deceased.

"Patrol members secured the area and requested members of the forensic identifications and major crimes units to attend,'' Popowich said, explaining investigators were at the scene for most of Saturday and will continue to secure the area as a crime scene until police have more information as to the cause and manner of the woman's death.

"We are continuing that investigation," she said. "It is being considered a suspicious death and the coroner will order any post-mortem procedures requested. We are also in the process of confirming the identity of the deceased, and once that is confirmed, we will then will notify the woman's family.''

Investigators have said it appears the deceased body was at that location for some time and for that reason identifying the deceased will take some time, Popowich said, noting that won't likely happen until after the weekend.

"In the province of Saskatchewan, we know there are many families who have a missing person in their family," Popowich said on Saturday. "So the discovery of a deceased person before an identity is confirmed must start an agonizing period of waiting for all of those families and it is very, very difficult.

"We can't speculate on the identify of the deceased," continued Popowich, who refused to comment Sunday on the social website postings about Poorman.

"We have to know it through fact and we have to confirm it. As difficult as it is for people to wait for those answers, it is our duty to deal in fact," she said.

akyle@leaderpost.canwest.com

jcouture@leaderpost.canwest.com

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