For background; there was a very high profile murder in Alberta several years ago. A young indigenous woman was murdered while hitchhiking. One of the reasons that the case got so much attention is because there was a voice recording obtained from the victim making a phone call to a prison after being picked up. You can hear the voice of the person giving her a ride and who presumably killed her in the recording, so the recording was spread far and wide.

From the very beginning that this case was getting attention, my mother and my aunt immediately thought that they recognized the voice as being my uncles'. My mother even sent a link about the case to my grandmother without comment and my grandma's first response was "it's not (uncles name)", which clearly means she recognized the voice too. My uncle also has a criminal record and had been in prison several times, including once for severely beating and injuring a romantic partner. He lived in the city the crime occurred at the time as well, and oddly enough has only ever dated indigenous women.

For years my mother refused to report her thoughts to the investigation, feeling like authorities might pin the crime on him due to his criminal record. I pressed her to make the report any time it came up, once a year or so, but she never did. However, recently something extremely disturbing happened that made her change her mind.

On my uncle's Facebook he posted a status that led to him talking about how easy it is to get away with murdering indigenous women. Not just any women, indigenous women in particular. He said that all you had to do was say that they (as in, the Native woman you want to go missing) went hitchhiking and never came home, and the RCMP won't be able to do anything about it. He was also saying this in the context of a friend who was complaining about his (presumably Native) recent ex wife. Essentially what my uncle was saying to him was "Native women are the worst, but at least they're easy to get rid of."

My mother said that when she read those comments her blood turned to ice, and that she almost threw up. She sent screenshots to me and they are so incredibly disturbing, even if I didn't think my uncle might be connected to the murder, they would have been very scary and baffling. The fact that my family already suspected the possibility erases almost any doubt for me, it's so incredibly specific. My mom said she felt an instantaneous epiphany that it had to be her brother.

She spent hours talking to the police, giving them all the information she had. The detective handling her statement allowed her to listen to more of the recording that hadn't been released to the public and my mom said hearing more of the voice of the presumed killer convinced her even further that it had to be her brother. She begged the defective to take her claim seriously and the detective promised he would.

I'm still in shock at the things my uncle posted. I always felt like he fit the profile of someone who would commit this type of crime, and found it compelling that several relatives thought they recognized his voice in the recording, but I was far from convinced that he had to be the killer, but this recent revelation is so chilling and eerie. This man used to live with us. My sister has always been absolutely terrified of him. She won't go anywhere near him if he's around. Maybe she just has a feeling around him. I'm hoping it isn't my uncle of course, but if it does end up going that way, I'm glad my mother finally made the call.