The Prince Albert Police Service is working to raise awareness about some long term missing person cases.
To do this the police service has put up billboards with pictures of nine missing people. The billboards are located in P.A. but have also gone up in Manitoba and Alberta.
Sgt. Kathy Edwardsen, who is the lead investigator on the cases explained with May being missing persons’ month they wanted to raise as much awareness as they could.
“We just want to put as much awareness out there as possible to let people know we’re still looking for answers,” she said.
Edwardsen said they felt it was important to have billboards outside of the P.A. area as over the years they have gotten tips from people in those provinces. The police Sergeant said their hope is for a range of people to see the message.
“Not only are we trying to reach out for those that might be witness to these missing persons on what might have happened, we’re also trying to reach out for the people that could be responsible,” she said.
Of the nine missing people who are featured on the billboard, two of the cases stretch back just over 30 years. Edwardsen said as time goes by, people who may not have wanted to speak up in the past might currently have a different mindset.
She added there could also be cases where the person responsible might feel differently as well.
“Times have changed, times gone by, we all recognize as we get older how important closer is,” she said.
Before going forward with the campaign, Sgt. Edwardsen reached out to the families of the missing people and got their permission to put the pictures up on the billboard. She said all the families liked the idea of the billboard campaign.
“They’re all so happy to have this done, the families they don’t want their missing loved ones to be forgotten,” she said.
Edwardsen explained they made sure to place the billboards in visible locations in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. She added many people move between these cities and P.A.
“We wanted to stick to the prairie provinces because that where we believe witness and possible suspects could be,” she said.
(One of the missing persons billboards in Prince Albert: Photo Courtesy of Prince Albert Police Twitter)