Days after police announced the remains of a Shuswap woman missing since 2017 have been found, a search is being renewed for two other women who have been missing from the area for years.
Splatsin community advocate Jody Leon has organized a search for Caitlin Potts and Deanna Wertz. Potts, 27, was last seen in Enderby on Feb. 22, 2016, while Wertz, 46, was last seen July 19 of that year at her home on Yankee Flats Road.
A search for the two Shuswap-North Okanagan women will take place on National Indigenous Peoples Day Saturday, June 21. The search is an open invitation to anyone who would like to take part and assist with the effort.
The search group will be meeting at the Splatsin Community Centre just before 9 a.m. Saturday. From there, they'll make their way to Mount Ida in the Silver Creek area of rural Salmon Arm, where they will search a four-kilometre range, looking for any signs of human remains. The search will utilize dogs from the Kamloops Search, Recovery and Detection K9s of B.C., as well as vehicles and ground search teams.
The Mount Ida area is near where the remains of 31-year-old Shuswap mother Nicole Bell were found by police, according to Leon. In a media release issued Wednesday morning, June 18, Mounties said her remains were found in "rural Salmon Arm," adding the Southeast District Major Crime Unit suspected foul play quickly after it took over the investigation nearly eight years ago, on Sept. 6, 2017.
Mount Ida is also near the Sagmoen farm, where notorious North Okanagan offender Curtis Sagmoen resided and where the remains of Vernon teen Traci Genereaux were discovered in October 2017.
Charges have not been laid in relation to the deaths of Genereaux and Bell, though following Sagmoen's death in April Bell's mother, Jane Aubertin, told Black Press Media that Sagmoen was the primary suspect in her daughter's case.
The RCMP acknowledged Wednesday that Bell was one of five women who went missing in the area within a short period of time, including Genereaux (the other three, not named by the RCMP, are Potts, Wertz and Ashley Simpson).
鈥淎lthough it has been established that the disappearance of all five women were not associated to a single serial actor, investigators believe that the primary suspect responsible for Bell鈥檚 death is the same as that of Traci Genereaux," said Supt. Sanjaya Wijayakoon, Operations Officer for the BC RCMP Major Crimes program.
Sagmoen was not explicitly named as the suspect linked to Bell's and Genereaux's deaths.
News that Sagmoen was found dead in a Vernon hotel room on April 10 came as a relief to some, but not Leon.
She said someone asked her how she felt upon hearing of his death: "I actually feel really mad," she said, explaining his death makes it harder for more answers to come out.
Leon organized a May 1 rally at the Splatsin centre that called for justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. She said that rally formed a number of connections that will serve this weekend's search.
The rally also raised $5,000 which Leon is using as a reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the recovery of Potts of Wertz. For a chance to claim the reward, people with information can contact Vancouver lawyer Sue Brown of the Justice for Girls organization at .
The search is not an RCMP operation, but Leon said she's maintained good relationships with police in this and other past searches.
Leon has been a missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit (MMIWG2S) activist off and on since 2016. She said she keeps at it because she's seen how traumatic these deaths and disappearances are for the families.
Leon said she's glad that some amount of closure will come to Bell's family now that she has been recovered, but at the same time she feels devastated for them, especially for Bell's young children, one of whom once gave her a bracelet and asked her to "please help find my mom."
"It hurts," she said. "Even though I don't know the people personally, I know how much pain this is going to cause their family...nobody wants their loved one to end up like that, to know that there's another woman now that has left children on the Earth because people were violent to her."
Leon said justice is "100 per cent needed," adding the deaths of Bell and Genereaux were apparently connected and the family needs answers.
"Until people keep pushing for the answers to come forward, that call for justice will continue to need to happen. And if there is no killer that's alive, then the justice system should look towards restorative healing."
Water and snacks will be provided at Saturday's search, and people are advised to dress according to the weather.
For questions about the search, or for anyone willing to match the $5,000 reward, contact Leon at mmiwg2sevents@gmail.com.
