Saskatchewan still dealing with 133 long-term missing persons cases

Project HOME — “Help Our Missing Emerge” — has been launched in Saskatchewan in hopes of getting missing persons back to their loved ones.

Saskatchewan Missing Persons Week runs through Saturday in Saskatchewan and police forces are doing their part with Project HOME.

It’s a provincewide campaign using digital billboards and social media platforms to bring attention to the long-term missing persons cases in Saskatchewan.

According to the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police (SACP) website, the province currently has 133 long-term missing persons — men, women and children.

(RCMP/Submitted)

“Their cases remain open and officers continue to investigate their disappearances,” the Saskatchewan RCMP said in a media release. “Their families continue to wait for answers about what happened to their missing loved ones.

“The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness and generate new tips that can assist Saskatchewan police agencies in helping locate all of these missing individuals.”

There are seven billboards located in Regina, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Prince Albert and North Battleford, each of which will show pictures, names and information about many of the missing persons. The Mounties said families of some of the missing persons have chosen not to participate in the campaign.

More information about the cases across Saskatchewan can be found on the SACP website.

“I can’t imagine the anguish the families of those who remain missing must feel every day,” Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, said in the release.

“We want to remind the public that these missing individuals are loved — their absences have left holes in the hearts of their families and friends. They haven’t been and won’t be forgotten.”

Project HOME was created through a partnership featuring the RCMP and the Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert police services, with funding from the SACP, the Civil Forfeiture Fund and the Department of Justice Victims and Survivors of Crime Week Victims’ Fund.

Anyone with information about any of the missing persons is asked to call their local police, the Saskatchewan RCMP Missing Persons Line at 1-833-502-6861, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

A number of in-person and virtual events are scheduled for the week. A list of those events can be seen below or on the Saskatchewan Missing Persons Partnership’s social media channels.