{"id":591391,"date":"2026-04-09T00:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T00:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591391\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T00:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T00:47:14","slug":"i-want-answers-aunt-says-after-missing-manitoba-woman-leah-keepers-remains-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/591391\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I want answers,’ aunt says after missing Manitoba woman Leah Keeper’s remains identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The remains of a mother of two who was missing for nearly three years have been found, Winnipeg police announced Wednesday \u2014 but Leah Keeper’s family say they feel left in the dark about details surrounding her death.<\/p>\n

Keeper was reported missing in November 2023. She had last been seen in the area of Salter Avenue and Selkirk Street in Winnipeg’s North End on July 25 of that year. She was 32 at the time, police previously said.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Police Service announced last fall that partial human remains had been found in a back lane<\/a> along Selkirk Avenue, between Parr and Andrews streets, on Nov. 23, 2025. Police said in a news release Wednesday that Keeper’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing and that they continue to investigate her death.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Courchene, Keeper’s aunt, said while the update brought some closure, her family still has questions \u2014 including how Keeper died, how her remains were found and why it took police so long to tell them the remains were hers. <\/p>\n

“Was Leah’s remains there all those three years?” Courchene said at a news conference hosted by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs on Wednesday afternoon, adding she was frustrated police did not hold a news conference of their own to announce the update.<\/p>\n

“I want answers. What happened within those three years?” <\/p>\n

Winnipeg police sent the release after CBC News asked for comment.<\/p>\n

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Remains of Leah Keeper, missing since 2023, found<\/p>\n

The remains of a mother of two from Sagkeeng First Nation last seen in Winnipeg’s North End almost three years ago have been found, her family and police said on April 8.<\/p>\n

Courchene said Keeper, whose family is from Sagkeeng First Nation, disappeared after she took her niece to Winnipeg to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

Keeper’s death has been felt widely, First Nations leaders said at the news conference alongside Courchene.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge how heavy this is for everybody. You know, when one person hurts in our community, we all hurt,” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said. “Today, we want everyone to know that she was deeply loved by her family.”<\/p>\n

Sagkeeng Chief Ej Fontaine said this is another example of “how we need to be better supported.”<\/p>\n

“We’ve been going on with this for too long now in Sagkeeng. Women are going missing, found dead,” he said. “Our people matter. Our women matter.”<\/p>\n

Keeper’s disappearance sparked searches by her friends, family and community members, including members of the Bear Clan Patrol, who put up posters with her face on them and repeatedly looked for any sign of the missing woman.<\/p>\n

\"TwoSearchers put up posters of Leah Keeper in downtown Winnipeg on Nov. 16, 2024, as her family joined volunteers in a walk they hoped would help find her. (Ron Dhaliwal\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Courchene said while Keeper struggled with addiction later in her life after she “met up with the wrong people,” her family is remembering her as a bubbly person who trained as a nursing assistant and loved her two daughters, who are now six and 12.<\/p>\n

She said Keeper’s family hope to take her remains home to Sagkeeng and plan to have a vigil for her in Winnipeg this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-591391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}