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Sangeeta Khanna, 41, went missing April 17th, 2006.

Case status is open and active.

Sangeeta Khanna, a single mother, left her Ellerslie Crossing home at about 9 p.m. on April 17th, 2006.

At about 11 p.m. she called her 15-year-old son and told him she was going to the bank – a five minute drive away.

Khanna said she would be home shortly but the next morning her son noticed she wasn’t at home.

Khanna was described as standing about 5-feet 4-inches and weighing 135 lbs. She has dark hair and dark eyes.

Khanna was last seen wearing white velour pants, possibly with a stripe down the side, and a white top. She was carrying a brown purse with two straps and pockets on the side.

Khanna walked with a pronounced limp due to a childhood bout with polio.

On April 20th, 2006 homicide detectives joined the investigation but police said they were still treating the out-of-character disappearance as a "missing persons" case.

Police found her SUV, a dark blue over silver 2005 Suzuki Grand Vitara, in the Royal Bank parking lot on 23 Avenue and 66 Street on April 18th.

The vehicle was seized for further examination but there was no indication of anything suspicious.

Police revealed that there was no activity recorded on her bank account and there was no damage to the SUV. They further believed she didn't make it inside the bank.

Khanna's son Kuran said he sensed a nervous tone in his mother's voice when she called. "It was panicked and something was wrong. Her voice sounded like an echo."

Khanna was divorced and separated from her husband in 2000. Her ex-husband, who remarried, was brought into police headquarters for questioning. Family members didn't feel he had anything to do with her disappearance.

Police also questioned some marriage candidates the family had selected for Khanna.

"We were trying to find some matches for her for matrimonial purposes because she's been divorced for so long. We were in touch with a couple of guys and the police have even questioned them," a family member said.

Khanna was employed by Alberta Permit Pro Inc. Just days before her disappearance she landed a lucrative $3-million contract with a major energy company. Company president Rick Kerscher said the sale would have doubled her $40,000 annual salary.

A week after Khanna went missing, friends and family were concentrating their search efforts on city hospitals and clinics.

"We're suspecting she's disoriented and somebody's dropped her off (at a hospital)," said Romesh Mohan, Khanna's brother-in-law.

The family also made repeated calls to her cellphone but their calls went straight to voicemail.

On May 2nd, 2006 the Edmonton Sun carried a story describing the Khanna family's desperate attempts to find her -- including turning to psychics.

Sangeeta Khanna.

"We're doing every stupid thing, you could say," said her older sibling, Krishna Mohan. "Right now, we'll try anything. We just want her back."

"She would never leave her son," said Krishna. "A person doesn't just leave like that. She's not a teenager, she's a very responsible mother, she's a very responsible employee.

"She wouldn't go on her own. If anyone can find her, just bring her back. We won't say anything."

Mohan figured the family had consulted at least four or five psychics in efforts to find Khanna. Clairvoyants told them she would be back in 10 days.

On May 27th, 2006 the Edmonton Journal ran a story updating the events of April 17th.

Khanna left her house in Ellerslie Crossing for a quick trip to the Royal Bank at the Mill Woods Town Centre. At about 8:45 p.m., she called her 15-year-old son Kurn and told him she'd be back in a few minutes. She called her father on her cellphone and told him the same thing.

Two hours passed but Khanna didn't come home. Shortly after 11 p.m., she called her son on her cellphone.

Quoted in the Journal, Kurn said her voice sounded unusual, as if she were walking and talking at the same time.

"She sounded shaky and a little panicky," he said.

"I asked, 'Why have you been gone so long?' I asked her if she was going to get me ice cream. I'd asked her to get me some before she left. She said, 'I'll try.' "

Rick Kerscher, president of Alberta Permit Pro where Khanna worked, said "I believe it's foul play. Nothing else makes sense to me."

Investigators continued to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case though a homicide detective has been assigned to lead the investigation.

"It's a very strange situation," says police spokeswoman Karen Carlson. "There really isn't any indication of foul play. Our detectives have been treating this very seriously. But at this point, we can't say whether she left of her own free will, or if it's foul play."

The Edmonton Journal published a graphic depicting the hours before Khanna disappeared:

Anyone who may know of Khanna's whereabouts, or may have seen anything suspicious at the Royal Bank parking lot, should contact the Edmonton Police Service at 780-423-4567 or online at www.tipsubmit.com - a secure tip submission web site.

On August 13th, 2006 -- nearly four months to the day since Khanna's disappearance -- Robert Barrington Leigh went missing heading on his bike to the Edmonton Folk Festival in Gallagher Park.

When contacted by media for their reaction to Barrington Leigh's disappearance, the Khanna family said they now believe foul play is behind Sangeeta's absence.

On August 28th, 2006 authorities were called to check on human remains found in a heavily bushed area on a steep hillside between 82nd and 90th Street below Jasper Avenue.

The Edmonton Sun again contacted Khanna family.

"If they thought it could be her we would have had a call from the police," said Khanna's sister Madhu Mohan.

"We still have hope (that she could be alive), but we're just waiting. We don't know what else to do."

Nearly two years after 41-year-old Sangeeta Khanna disappeared from a Mill Woods shopping centre police revealed they think she had been murdered and her body dumped along a rural highway that stretches from Edmonton to western Saskatchewan.

On April 7th, 2008 homicide Detective Ernie Schrieber told media at a press conference that police have asked for the public's assistance in watching over an area along Highway 28 that runs from Edmonton through Bonnyville and Cold Lake heading towards Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

"The remains of Sangeeta Khanna may be in this particular area," Schreiber said.

"So with it being springtime, with snow melt, farmers getting back on their field, people getting out camping, hiking that sort of thing – we're just asking people to be a little more aware of what they may come across. It may be human remains.

"We're still interested in locating her purse. Which is described as a brown leather purse with handles on it and a zipper. (The purse contained) ... a set of keys."

A larger image of the area of interest can be seen here.

Described as 5-feet 4-inches tall and 135 lbs with dark hair and eyes, Khanna was last seen wearing white top, white velour pants (possibly with a stripe down the side) and carrying large brown leather purse.

Police also confirmed they have a suspect in the case, someone they had identified as a "person of interest" early in their investigation.

Schrieber stated that Sangeeta's ex-husband was not a suspect in the case, nor was the person a family member.

Schreiber said that while there was no body to use as evidence, police were treating her disappearance as a homicide because it was completely unlike Khanna to disappear without telling anyone. The officer bluntly told reporters: "I don't believe that she's alive."

The detective said their suspect left Edmonton shortly after Khanna's disappearance and may have carried her body with him.

The man, who police said was known to Khanna, returned to Edmonton on April 18th, 2006. Khanna was last heard from at about 11:00 p.m. the night before.

"This fellow has been on our radar in terms of our investigation since the start," Schreiber said. The man was questioned at the time and is now talking only through his lawyer.

"As is his legal right, he is entitled to avoid us, to not speak to us," Schreiber said.

Police also said they wanted to speak with anyone who may have seen a white Dodge minivan with a black fabric nose bra across its front travelling along Highway 28 that route in mid-April 2006.

If Sangeeta Khanna's case is confirmed as a homicide it would bring 2006's murder tally up to 37. In 2005, Edmonton set its all-time one-year murder record with 39 deaths, more than one every 10 days.

The timing of Edmonton Police officer Ernie Schrieber's widely reported appeal seemed odd to online detectives closely watching the case.

The melting snows of 2008 mark the second spring since Khanna's disappearance. Logic would suggest unusual items or human remains would have been revealed a year earlier.

Schreiber's appeal suggested investigators uncovered new information pointing them to Highway 28 ... or that they were anxious to gather key evidence so that a charge could be laid.

deadmonton 2006 - sangeeta khanna