Her body was found in a Whitehorse dump 55 years ago. The family still wants answers

The final time Tootsie Jimmy-Charlie was seen alive, so far as anyone is aware of, was on March 17, 1967, when she was launched from the Whitehorse jail. 

9 weeks later, her physique was discovered by a trio of individuals who had gone to the Porter Creek dump for some rifle observe. Based on a coroner’s report, Jimmy-Charlie’s physique was discovered mendacity face up below some deadfall close to the again of the dump. There have been damaged branches close by. The physique was partially decomposed.

It isn’t identified how lengthy Jimmy-Charlie had been lifeless.

A coroner’s inquest a number of weeks later dominated that the 26-year-old girl had died by “misadventure,” with alcohol and publicity enjoying a distinguished function.

“There was no signal of a battle on the scene and two damaged branches indicated that the physique might have rolled into the spot during which it was discovered,” reads the inquest report, recounting testimony from one of many RCMP’s investigating officers.

The coroner’s report was filed and for police, the case was basically closed.

However for Jimmy-Charlie’s household, nothing’s been closed. They imagine there’s extra to find out about what occurred 55 years in the past to their mom, sister and aunt. They really feel the inquest conclusions simply do not add up, and the report is deeply flawed — incomplete, and racist.

The report, “makes it sound like she simply walked there herself and died on a pile of rubbish. Nobody does that. Nobody,” wrote Jimmy-Charlie’s daughter Darlene Jimmy, in an announcement final week.

“A number of statements [in the report] … show negligence within the investigation, in addition to abject prejudice in direction of Indigenous folks.”

Questions and suspicions have haunted the household for many years, Maje Raider says. 

“We knew undoubtedly, you realize, there was one thing greater than what that they had put within the post-mortem report,” she advised CBC Information. 

“We felt that there was greater than that. We nonetheless really feel that she was murdered.”

Thorough investigation was not carried out: RCMP

Jimmy-Charlie’s household doesn’t have any definitive new info to again up their suspicions. However they’ve one thing else, as of final week — an admission by the RCMP that police had dropped the ball within the unique investigation.

“It was our job to finish an intensive investigation. And that was not carried out,” Yukon RCMP Chief Supt. Scott Sheppard admitted to a gathering of members of the family in Whitehorse final week.

“In failing to take action, we dishonoured the reminiscence of Miss Jimmy-Charlie. We failed her household … We didn’t discover out the reason for her disappearance, and in the end her loss of life.” 

Sheppard provided Jimmy-Charlie’s household a proper apology, “for all of the ache and hardships you might have skilled within the years which have adopted.”

He didn’t attempt to clarify why the investigation was insufficient, or what may have been carried out otherwise. However answering questions from Jimmy-Charlie’s household, Sheppard acknowledged a protracted and rocky historical past between RCMP and Indigenous folks.

“A few of that historical past has been good and well-intended, however there have been troubling occasions as properly. And that is definitely a kind of occasions,” he stated. 

“I am not below any illusions with regards to the connection between First Nations communities and the police. And, properly, definitely we’re a special group than we have been in 1967,” he stated. 

Requests to revisit case ‘not adopted up on’

Sheppard acknowledged that Jimmy-Charlie’s file “by no means obtained lots of consideration” over time, regardless of requests to look into it as soon as once more.

These requests “weren’t adopted up on,” he stated.

Based on Sheppard, issues modified a number of years in the past with the Nationwide Inquiry into Lacking and Murdered Indigenous Ladies and Ladies (MMIWG). The inquiry put a highlight again onto the case, he stated.

Jimmy-Charlie’s siblings, Dominic Charlie and Margaret Charlie, testified to the inquiry in February 2018 at a public truth-gathering listening to in Decrease Put up, B.C., about their older sister.

Dominic’s recollections of her have been imprecise — he was simply six years previous when Jimmy-Charlie died. He described how he had been despatched to residential college round then and had principally misplaced contact together with his household. He figured it was at the least a 12 months earlier than he even discovered his sister was lifeless.

“I did not know nothing about Tootsie getting murdered and stuff like that till my mother advised me. And she or he took it actually arduous,” he advised the inquiry.   

Requested what he knew about how his sister had died, he stated, merely, “she was murdered.” 

“She was dumped — thrown in a dump, within the assassin’s dump.”

Mary Charlie, older than her brother, had extra vivid recollections. She recalled how Tootsie had been despatched to jail in Whitehorse for every week “due to consuming,” and the way the household waited on the bus depot for Jimmy-Charlie to reach dwelling after her launch. She by no means got here, Mary stated. 

Later, the police confirmed up in Watson Lake asking for Mary’s dad and mom.

“I knew straight away one thing occurred,” Mary advised the inquiry.

Jimmy-Charlie’s loss of life devastated the household, Mary stated. There have been so many unanswered questions and no person appeared curious about discovering the solutions. Nothing would change for years to return. 

“We have been attempting to open that case on her to see what actually occurred to her, how she died. We actually needed to know, however they by no means carried out nothing on it. So truly, Mother simply let it go. It was like they slide it beneath the rug,” Mary advised the listening to.

The household says the MMIWG inquiry suggested RCMP to overview Jimmy-Charlie’s file and work along with her household. Family started assembly with RCMP and pushing for acknowledgement that the long-ago investigation had been flawed.

Greater than 4 years after Dominic and Mary’s testimony, and greater than 5 many years after their sister’s loss of life, that acknowlegment lastly got here. 

Officer’s non-public journal affords hope of latest info

Jimmy-Charlie’s household, determined for something that will shed new mild on what occurred, pressed RCMP Supt. Shepherd final week for one thing else — the non-public journal of a former RCMP officer, nonetheless residing, who was concerned within the 1967 investigation. They’re hopeful the officer’s written recollections will supply some new scrap of proof.

“For me, I wish to see these notes as a result of I believe that is what I am lacking for my closure,” stated Liz Porter, a niece of Jimmy-Charlie.

“I did not know my auntie as a result of I wasn’t born but. However, you realize, spiritually, she’s with me.”

Sheppard stated the previous officer’s journal is from after he retired from the drive, and so is just not RCMP property. Nonetheless, he stated, police do have copies of a few of the materials, and the household might entry them the identical approach as for some other RCMP information — via an entry to info request.

“As a personal citizen, as a person, there are limitations by way of what we are able to do to attempt to entry info. However once more, I will say it once more, we are going to do our very, highest to get that info made obtainable to you in no matter kind,” Sheppard advised them.

Within the meantime, some members of the family say the formal apology from RCMP is welcome — even when it was a very long time coming.

Stephen Charlie, chief of the Liard River First Nation and Jimmy-Charlie’s nephew, referred to as it a “step in the precise path,” but additionally stated it should not have taken so lengthy.

“I imagine the household is appreciative of that acknowledgment. However I believe the household feels that they are those that must push ahead the RCMP to do that. So it is bittersweet.”

Margaret Charlie, Tootsie’s youngest sibling, wants extra — she needs closure. For that, she wants solutions. 

“We actually have to know what occurred to my sister, you realize? And she or he’s nonetheless with us in spirit and my coronary heart.”