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Shannon Maureen Collins, 29, was declared dead December 12th, 2008.

Collins was last seen alive in December 2007. She was reported missing in September 2008. Dental record comparisons confirmed a body found June 5th, 2008 in Strathcona County was that of Collins.

Collins was deemed to be the Edmonton metro area's fifth homicide of the year at the time of the discovery of her body.

Case status is open and active.

most recent update

On June 5th, 2008 at approximately 8:00 p.m. Strathcona County RCMP received a call from a homeowner whose dog uncovered a human skull in a yard in the Belvedere Heights subdivision near Range Road 231 and Township Road 514, south of Sherwood Park.

The man covered the item and called police who immediately secured the scene. A further search of the property using a police service dog led to an entire skeleton being found in a small clearing among poplar trees, about 100 meters from the property's back gate.

The resources of RCMP Major Crimes North, Strathcona County RCMP and RCMP Forensic Identification Specialists were brought in and were expected to remain on the scene for most of the weekend.

"We simply don't know what we're dealing with. We have to treat the situation as if it were a homicide," Cpl. Darren Anderson told media.

"We have to treat it as if it was the most serious crime, which is a homicide. To do anything short of that would mean we're not doing our jobs. We could potentially miss a key piece of evidence if we did anything less"

Once an initial examination of the area was completed the remains were transported to the Medical Examiner's office. Police said it was not possible to determine the age, gender or how long the remains have been there.

The bones were scattered in the grass, not buried, Cpl. Anderson said. He was not able to say if the bones had been bleached by the sun, adding the amount of time it takes for a body to decompose is variable – depending on the temperature of the ground and microbe activity around it.

"That's an issue the medical examiner's office will have to determine," Anderson said.

As is the case in all suspicious deaths, Project KARE was notified but were not currently involved in the investigation.

The Strathcona County area has been the location of numerous bodies found, many of them persons with connections to the sex trade and other high-risk lifestyles.

An autopsy was completed on June 9th. However, RCMP said there was not a positive identification made on the remains.

The next day, RCMP issued a preliminary description of the victim.

The remains were that of a female, approximately 25 to 50 years of age, approximately 5-feet 3-inches (160 cm) tall, and possibly of Asian or aboriginal descent. It was noted the person had nice teeth with numerous fillings.

The Medical Examiner estimated the remains may have been there for as long as 9 to 24 months.

The discovery was officially ruled a homicide although the cause of death was listed as undetermined. Police said RCMP Major Crimes North continues to lead the investigation, with Project KARE providing assistance – the first indication the task force was actively involved.

Cpl. Darren Anderson afforded media some sound bites.

"Just the fact alone that the body was discovered in a remote location in a wooded area, that's suspicious enough," Anderson explained. "We are treating it as a homicide."

"We don't know exactly what we're dealing with or who we're dealing with," he added.

"There is a good chance percentage-wise that it is an Asian or Native female but we can't rule out any other race completely," Anderson said.

About the dental evidence, the officer expressed optimism.

"We do have good ability here in this case to get a confirmation through dental records. They are potentially an avenue that could lead us to an identity of the victim.

"They were straight – I don't know if it was a full set but from what I understand the teeth appeared cared for and they were what we would classify as nice teeth," Anderson said.

Concerning the site the body was found, Anderson said further work was contemplated.

"We are going to be doing more searches in the area. Search and Rescue are going to be doing an extensive ground search."

Anderson also clarified the role of Project KARE.

"They have a large database of missing persons in Alberta and that's just a logical place to start. That's not the only avenue that we're looking at – obviously we have to take into account other missing person databases as well."

It was also revealed that along with the human remains, police discovered animal bones.

Those with information about the remains were asked to contact Strathcona County RCMP at 780-467-7741, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.tipsubmit.com

Tips can also be text messaged. In Edmonton, text TIP250 + message and send to CRIMES (274637). In Northern Alberta, text TIP205 + message and send to CRIMES (274637).

The discovery of the bones came a week after two sets of human remains were found together near Lamont. RCMP later announced they were treating that matter as a homicide.

The Edmonton Sun contacted University of Alberta criminologist Bill Pitt for his assessment.

"It's a cemetery," Pitt said, estimating that at least 30 bodies have been found in the area since 1988.

Pitt noted gangsters may also be dumping dead rivals out there because of its thickly wooded areas.

"They're dropping zones for dead bodies. They are incredibly dense and make good places to hide bodies."

The area where the skeletal remains were found is a populated area surrounded by residential acreages and close to the Belvedere Golf Course.

"The proximity to other individuals is brazen, arrogant, someone who feels untouchable," Pitt said. "There may be more out there."

In an attempt to shed light on the identity of the remains, media seemed focused on the five women listed on the Missing Persons Cases page of the Project KARE web site.


Brower	Burke	Gunning	Knott	Ottenbreit

The five pictured above are a small subset of the total number of missing person reports received by police annually: nearly 8,000 a year by the Edmonton Police Service, with an equal number reported to the RCMP province-wide.

On February 12th, 2008 the RCMP, along with a number of municipal police agencies, established www.albertamissingpersons.ca, a website that allows public access to missing persons files that date back to the 1970s.

Additional missing persons cases can also be found on the Project KARE page maintained by this site.

In the wake of the discovery of skeletal remains near Sherwood Park, those close to the sex trade community were contacted for their reaction.

Concerning the description of the remains, prostitution activist Carol-Lynn Strachan said it fits that of many missing sex trade workers.

However, if she had nice teeth, she may not have been on the street long, if at all.

"She could have been working the street, but perfect white teeth, well maintained, this person if she was working wasn't there very long," said Strachan.

She added that most sex trade workers have bad teeth due to drug use, or are missing teeth due to violence by men.

Kathy King, acting executive director of the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton, was not surprised the victim was a woman.

"It was the news we were expecting to hear. We were afraid that it was going to be a female, and if it's a female chances are it's somebody known to us to in Project KARE," she said.

"My first reaction was that there was a good chance it would be someone known to us because the body was found in the corridor where a lot of missing women have been found. It seems to be a fairly common dumping ground."

King agreed the description matched many.

"Most of the women (in the sex trade) are on the small side and many of them are native," she said.

But whether the woman was a prostitute or not, King said the news will be tough for one family to take once the victim is identified.

"At least one family will have an answer, one family that's been waiting for answers.

"As tragic as it's going to be for whoever is named, at least one family will have the opportunity to give their loved one a proper burial and a proper service," King said.

Kathy King is the mother of Cara King.

Cara's body was found in a canola field near Highway 214 and Highway 16 near Sherwood Park on September 1st, 1997. She was 22.

On June 26th, 2008 RCMP announced their the investigation had eliminated a large percentage of existing missing person files in the Edmonton and Alberta areas.

Attention was now being turned to files from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and N.W.T.

Investigators acknowledged that the victim may not have been reported as a missing person.

Shannon Maureen Collins - click to enlarge

On December 12th, 2008 Strathcona RCMP identified the human remains found June 5th as those of Shannon Maureen Collins.

The identification was determined by the Medical Examiner's office through dental records.

RCMP said Project KARE had been consulted but were not actively involved in the current investigation.

Collins was last seen alive in December 2007. She was reported missing by family on September 9th, 2008.

Police asked those with information about Collin's activities in the time between December 2007 and June 5th to contact Strathcona County RCMP at 780-467-7741, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.tipsubmit.com

Tips can also be text messaged. In Edmonton, text TIP250 + message and send to CRIMES (274637). In Northern Alberta, text TIP205 + message and send to CRIMES (274637).

When Shannon Collins was last heard from she told family she was heading down to Calgary to look for work. She was relatively active on Facebook until the end of November 2007, after which no activity was shown.

In October 2008, the Edmonton Sun interviewed Stephanie Collins, Shannon's sister, who said the woman's potential employer in Calgary was the hells Angels.

"I was told that she was becoming a hooker for them," Stephanie said.

The last time she spoke with Shannon was in May 2007, when her sister had "three legitimate, good-working jobs." Stephanie also said that Shannon was the mother of an 11-year-old boy.

"I'm the first person to do anything," Stephanie said about her missing sister. "I've talked to a few people and I made the missing persons report to the cops."

Family members set up the Looking for Shannon Collins Facebook page to aid their search.

An Edmonton police spokesman said at the time officers investigated the Calgary lead but came up empty-handed.

Shannon, who investigators believe led a high risk lifetsyle, was reported missing ten months after she was last seen and three month after the remains were found. That led to the delay in identifying her remains, police said.

"That's not typical," Strathcona County RCMP Const. Wally Henry told media.

"If this was somebody that had what you would categorise as a normal lifestyle, it would not be a matter of eight to 10 months before a family member reported her missing," Henry said.

The officer would not confirm to what extent Collins may have been involved in the sex or drug trades which generally define the lifestyle police term as "high risk."

Police were still trying to determine if Collins was involved in prostitution, Henry said, adding police wanted to talk to Shannon's friends and family so they can get a sense of her "daily activities" and find out "how encompassing her high risk lifestyle was."

As Collins had only been recently identified, Henry said the investigation was essentially just beginning.

"From June to September, she wouldn't have been on the radar for us to look at," Henry said. "Those months in between there, when we were checking databases and she's not there, that's something that delayed it for sure."

"It's going to be more challenging," he said.

A cause and an approximate time of death had been determined but was not made public for investigative purposes, Henry advised.

The officer also wouldn't confirm whether Calgary police were involved in the investigation.

"There's information out there we're still trying to solidify," he said.

Police are continuing to treat the matter as a homicide.

Shannon's family was advised of the police findings two days before they were made public.

Chris Nuthack said he was with her family as they reminisced about her life.

He was shocked to learn Shannon was dead, he said, but in a way relieved to finally know what happened to her.

"There was a level of relief in at least we knew what happened. At the same time, we were hoping for a different [outcome]," he said.

"What it sounded like [was] she was dumped," Nuthack said. "That's not cool. There's some harsh feelings. We hope they catch [the murderer.]"

Another friend said Shannon had either quit waitressing or was fired by August 2007.

Cindy Kilcup, who met Shannon eight years ago, said she last heard from her friend in a Facebook message sent in December 2007.

Collins also wrote that she was hoping to go to Jasper in February 2008.

In a message to the Edmonton Journal, Kilcup wrote that she had not seen Collins for about six years.

"She was a lively, spunky girl who seemed to love life," she wrote, adding that she had a son who was not in her custody.

All the information presented on this page has been compiled primarily from published media reports and should not be interpreted as having legal bearing or other prejudice against the individuals named on this web site. The Last Link on the Left practices fair presentation and the disclosure of relevant interests. Mouseover for image credits.

deadmonton 2008 - shannon maureen collins