No criminal offence by police in failed search for B.C. woman found dead: watchdog

British Columbia’s police watchdog agency says officers in an Interior community could have done more in the search for a missing Indigenous woman who was later found dead.

However, the Independent Investigations Office says in a report on the case that RCMP in Vanderhoof, B.C., did take many steps in the search and followed policing standards, clearing them of an offence.

Search efforts by police and community members started on Oct. 11, 2023, for the woman whose body was eventually found weeks later by officers and a police dog.

The investigations agency was contacted on Dec. 4, 2023, with a request to look into the handling of the case, and the report released Wednesday found that officers could have used a police dog on the day the search began but did not do so.

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The report did not release the name of the woman, but the details of the case match that of Saik’uz First Nation member Chelsey Quaw.

The agency’s investigation shows RCMP used a drone in the search, canvassed security camera footage, and conducted repeated searches where officers handed out pamphlets, but they failed to find Quaw’s body before Nov. 5.

“The evidence shows both the community and police took many steps to find the (woman), even though all of those steps may not have been communicated to the family and the community,” IIO chief civilian director Jessica Berglund says in the findings.

“For criminal culpability to be found, the RCMP would have had to show a wanton and reckless disregard for the (woman’s) life.”

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Berglund did find that Quaw’s body was eventually found in the thick bush only about 700 metres from where she was first reported missing, and whether using a police dog on Oct. 11 would have made a difference is a question that “remains unanswered.”

The report says that experts advised at the time that a police dog would have been compromised due to the number of people involved at the scene of the search, making tracking by dog “impossible.”

Berglund says while a dog search initially may have had a low chance of success, it was still available to police and may have been an option worth taking.

“There are times when standard police practice may not be enough and, in my view, when a vulnerable, Indigenous woman goes missing in this province, exceptional efforts are warranted,” the report says.