leanne lori benwell › deadmonton 2007 › deadmonton › edmonton

Leanne Lori Benwell, 27, was found dead June 21st, 2007 near Highway 795 and Township Road 470, between the town of Calmar and Pigeon Lake, 68 kilometres south of Edmonton.

Benwell was the Edmonton area's first high-profile sex-trade homicide victim of the year.

Case status is open and active.

The case of Leanne Lori Benwell began as a missing person report and the first Project KARE alert of 2007.

Benwell was last seen alive by her mother on March 12th and she reported her missing April 15th.

On April 26th, Leanne's face appeared on a bulletin fanned out to street outreach groups by Project KARE. Police released an alert to the public on May 10th.

At about 2:00 p.m. June 21st, 2007 the driver of a quad all-terrain vehicle was travelling down a cut line beside a row of power transmission poles in central Alberta.

He was in the area fixing a fence. His eyes soon fixed on a set of human remains.

After three weeks, those remains were identified as Leanne Lori Benwell.

When Benwell was first reported missing, she was described as aboriginal, 5-feet 6-inches, 115 lbs. and of slight build. She had shoulder-length wavy black hair and often wore it tied back.

She had a tattoo of the word ‘vodka’ on an ankle, the word ‘Ozzy’ across the knuckles of one hand and the word ‘love’ across the knuckles of the other. Her jaw was out of alignment from a previous injury.

According to police, Benwell was unemployed and leading a high-risk lifestyle as a prostitute in the area of 118th Avenue and 95th Street at the time of her disappearance.

Connie Benwell, Leanne's mother, said she had never gone this long without speaking to her daughter.

When she last spoke to Leanne, her daughter said she had recently been beaten up by a man. Her face had cuts and bruises, her mother said, with a nasty gash across the bridge of her nose. She also appeared thin and unkempt.

Connie told CTV Edmonton about the last time she saw her daughter.

"She was only here for about fifteen minutes at the most and left."

"She phoned me again that night at about 11 o'clock and I told her that I had that money for her. She had left some of her laundry for her to pick up the next morning."

"She said, 'Yep, I'll be there, just keep that money for me.' I said yes, I will."

"Never showed up. Never heard from her. No phone call. Nothing."

"I've been searching the streets. I've contacted friends. I have people looking on the streets and nobody's seen her."

"It's not like her to not contact me – she usually does keep in contact with me especially the life that she leads."

"I've always made sure that she does contact me so that I know she's okay."

"Two months and I haven't heard nothing, and that's not like her."

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Al Fraser said Project KARE, the task force investigating the deaths and disappearances of more than 70 people, had been notified of the disappearance.

While Project KARE was notified, an Edmonton police spokesman tried to down play the significance of the task force's involvement.

"That is the perception that most people have that if Project KARE is involved that – you know – something untoward may have happened. That is not the case."

"Project KARE is always notified in instances where it involves a sex trade worker," the spokesman added.

On May 12th, 2007 the Edmonton Sun published a story that added more detail to when Leanne was last seen.

Days after she last spoke with her daughter, Connie tried to phone her at her boyfriend Robbie Moen's grandmother's house. It was there she was living.

The number wasn't in service, and while Connie was worried, she figured Leanne was with Moen. On April 14th, Moen phoned to ask if she'd seen Leanne anywhere.

"I told him, 'No, I thought she was with you.' "

Moen later said he last saw Leanne around March 19th or March 22nd, when she left his grandmother's house. According to Moen, Leanne said she'd be back in a few hours. He said he had not seen or heard from her since.

Leanne was from Fort Smith, N.W.T., and moved to Edmonton five or six years ago.

It was then she started using drugs, Connie said.

The Edmonton Sun's Eliza Barlow checked in again with Connie Benwell for a story published June 9th, 2007.

The worried mother renewed her plea for anyone who knew anything about her daughter Leanne to come forward.

“I'm just confused – so many things are playing through my mind,” said Benwell.

She told the Sun she's visited three medicine men and some psychics to search for clues about what happened to her daughter.

“They're all saying she's still alive but there's something blocking her that she can't come back.”

It was also reported for the first time that Leanne was a mother of two.

Twelve days later, on June 21st, TV screens and newspapers were filled with reports and images indicating that a body had been found west of Wetaskiwin.

RCMP officers from the Wetaskiwin Detachment made their way to the scene near Highway 795 and Township Road 470, between the town of Calmar and Pigeon Lake, 68 kilometres south of Edmonton.

"We're in the early stages of the investigation. The body has been taken to the medical examiner's office for a post-mortem examination."

"Investigators, in collaboration with the medical examiner, will be attempting to determine the manner and cause of death."

Despite not releasing the victim's age, gender or identity, RCMP spokesman Cpl. Wayne Oakes said Project KARE, the RCMP task force looking into the disappearances and deaths of more than 70 people, many of them involved in the sex trade, had been advised but was not actively involved in the case.

“As in every case of this nature, Project KARE has been notified. Are they involved? No,” Oakes said, adding that RCMP "K" Division Major Crimes South and Wetaskiwin RCMP General Investigation Section were conducting the investigation.

Exactly three years previously, on June 21st, 2004, a group of hikers discovered the skeletal remains of Lynn Minia Jackson northeast of Wetaskiwin. Jackson, identified through dental records, was born in 1970 and was a member of the Saddle Lake band. Her death remains unsolved.

Also unsolved is the Project KARE case of Charlene Gauld, a 20-year-old sex trade worker whose burned body was found April 16th, 2005 north of Camrose, 70 kilometres east of where the latest body was discovered.

Gauld was found in the area where the body of another Edmonton prostitute, Debbie Lake, was discovered on April 12th, 2003.

On June 23rd, RCMP released a preliminary description of the remains.

The body was that of a woman between the ages of 36 to 55, standing 5-feet 6-inches, and had brown hair.

"The forensic testing done so far would suggest the body has been in this location for at least six weeks," Cpl. Oakes said.

Oakes also said investigators were in the process of checking missing persons reports looking for a match and were treating the case as a homicide.

"Any time you find human remains in this situation, it is treated as suspicious," Oakes said.

Oakes also wouldn't confirm whether the woman was aboriginal or if there was any clothing found with the body.

Police appealed to the public and urged those who believed they might know the identity or anyone with information relating this incident to contact Wetaskiwin RCMP at 403-312-7267 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.tipsubmit.com - a secure tip submission web site.

About 40 Red Deer and Wetaskiwin search and rescue volunteers along with 10 RCMP forensic investigators scoured the area in the days following the find.

RCMP pressed into service their newly-minted helicopter and set up a roadblock along Highway 795, stopping hundreds of vehicles. Motorists were given forms to fill out in case they had noticed anything unusual over the past six weeks.

Bryan Bunney, 57, resides on land immediately north of the site. He said he checked his fence line within the last month but didn't notice anything.

"I would have been right on top of it."

Cheryl Dupe, living about 1.5 kilometres from the scene, said she has been noticing big black birds flying nearby in the last three weeks.

"I have not seen them before. I've been living here for six years. They're scavengers. They eat meat," she suggested.

The Edmonton Sun contacted the mother of a local prostitute who had been missing for two-and-a-half months.

Connie Benwell last saw her 27-year-old daughter Leanne Lori Benwell on March 12th, 2007.

"Before when I heard of found remains on the radio I'd just shut it off," Connie told the Sun.

"Missing Persons would always call me and tell me it wasn't Leanne they'd found. Now I just wait by the phone and keep hoping."

"I know what happens to a lot of women in the sex trade in Edmonton and that there's a possibility Leanne [was abducted and killed], but I pray that isn't so," Connie said.

On June 26th, 2007 the RCMP updated news of the case with a report indicating investigators were continuing to process missing persons reports in an effort to establish the person's identity.

In addition, the medical examiner was continuing with the process of forensic examination in an effort to determine race, identity and manner and cause of death.

Then came the news that everybody and nobody was waiting for.

At a press conference held July 11th, 2007 RCMP announced they had identified a woman's body found west of Wetaskiwin on June 21st.

27-year-old Leanne Lori Benwell, last seen alive by her mother three months earlier, was now being treated as the victim of a homicide.

The delay in identifying the woman was due to it being exposed to the elements for at least six weeks, according to a police estimate.

Cpl. Wayne Oakes of the RCMP did not how indicate how the identification was made, citing it may have been dental records or other forensic means.

Oakes suggested that bodies found in such conditions are often not fully intact.

Project KARE was now assisting Wetaskiwin RCMP and the Calgary Major Crimes Unit with the investigation.

KARE's involvement was thought primarily to relate the Benwell matter to other cases under its mandate. RCMP coverage of Alberta divides the province just north of Wetaskiwin, leaving higher jurisdiction of the case under the Calgary detachment's scrutiny.

RCMP said there were no known links to any of the unsolved homicides or missing persons cases currently under investigation in the greater Edmonton area. Project KARE is looking into more than 20 Edmonton cases filed over the last three decades.

The cause of Benwell's death was not announced, with police saying they weren't in a position to disclose further details at the time.

It was not known if Benwell had registered her DNA with the RCMP task force.

Also confirmed at the press conference was that the $100,000 Project KARE reward was still in effect. The reward was to be paid out to persons providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the deaths of victims under the team's mandate.

RCMP asked the public's assistance in identifying aspects of Benwell's lifestyle and her recent activities "no matter how trivial." When last seen by her mother, Benwell said she had just been beaten up by a man.

Her face had cuts and bruises, her mother said, with a gash across the bridge of her nose. She also appeared thin and unkempt.

On July 19th, 2007 RCMP added a tiny piece to the puzzle of where Leanne Benwell spent her last days.

"Information passed along" to police suggested that Benwell may have been seen on March 14th, 2007 at her residence in the area of 162nd Street and 104th Avenue in Edmonton.

Last reports placed the woman at her mother's home two days prior.

The press release suggested investigators are relying heavily on tips generated by the public in their quest to solve the woman's murder.

Those with information were asked to contact Wetaskiwin RCMP at 403-312-7267, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.tipsubmit.com - a secure tip submission web site.

deadmonton 2007 - leanne lori benwell