At first I was confused, we all were. Not hearing from you
for days made us wonder whether you had actually given up and run away like he
said… But as the days went on we realized something was wrong. We knew you
would never do that to the ones you loved. We couldn’t feel you with us… So the
search began. We went from days to weeks, searching high and low for any trace
of you. Pleading to the public to help us find you.
And then we did. We found you in a culvert just outside of
Saskatoon’s city limits. Wrapped in poly and frozen in the ice, your body was almost perfectly
preserved despite the fact that you were not the lively, loud, and rambunctious
aunt Dorothy I once knew- you were dead. You were murdered.
Blunt force trauma to the back of the head, hands bound your back and strangled to death. The rope was still around your hands and neck when the investigators found you. Didn't even bother disposing of the evidence before he disposed of you.
You were murdered by a man that told you he loved you. A man that helped you raise two bright and beautiful children. A man so overcome with jealousy and hatred because of a marriage that was once full of love, had now fallen apart. The ultimate crime of passion. Although this crime of passion wasn't strictly about losing the love of his life. This crime of passion was also based on the fact that you chose to bed BLACK men, not white like him.
He chose to let the pigment of someones skin turn him into a monster for a split second. He didn't fight to get you back, instead he told you to stay away. And stay away you did because he put you away for good.
No amount of words can ever describe the way that made us
feel. The roller coaster of emotions- sadness, anger, confusion… relief. Sad
that our nightmare had come true and that you were actually gone. Angry at the
person who would do this to someone we had so much love for. Confused that
someone felt so much hatred towards you that it would come down to this. And
relieved… Relieved that you were finally found and the searching didn’t need to
go on. Relieved that we’d gotten a little bit of closure.
Friday, November 11th, 2011 we lost you. Wednesday,
January 4th, 2012 we found you. Friday, January 13th,
2012 we put you to rest and said our goodbyes. Monday, April 28th,
2014 your trial began. Thursday, May 15th, 2014 your trial ended.
Justice has been served.
It’s time for us all to live the life you would have wanted
us to live. No more looking back at the past, only looking forward to the
future at what party we might crash next.
We love you more and more each day.
Cheers, Aunty Dot <3
