Candlelight vigil held for missing North Battleford woman

By Angela Brown, battlefordsNOW

People braved a windchill into the -20’sC Friday for a candlelight vigil at North Battleford Library Park for a woman, who’s now been missing for six months.

During the vigil Ashley Morin’s sister Janine said she will never give up looking for her.

“She is and always will be my baby sister,” Janine said, with tears in her eyes. “A light like yours can’t go out. Even though I can’t see you when I look up at the twinkling stars, I know you are still shining somewhere out there.”

Family spokesperson Krista Fox hopes the vigil reminds people how much time has passed since Morin was last seen or heard from.

Missing woman Ashley Dawn Morin, 31, was last seen July 10 in North Battleford. (RCMP)

“We want to keep her name and her face out there,” she said.

The 31-year-old woman was reported missing on July 10, 2018 and the RCMP’s Major Crime Unit consider her disappearance suspicious.

Fox said the family and supporters continue to conduct searches whenever they receive a tip but it’s difficult to keep coming away with nothing.

“We go out with that spunk, ready to find her and bring her home. But, when it’s dark and we can no longer search, once again we are defeated because we still have not been successful in bringing Ashley home,” she said.

Morin’s uncle Randy Bird said the family continues to struggle, not knowing where Morin is.

“It’s always at the back of your mind that someone you love is missing,” he said. “It’s hard. Over the six months, we really haven’t gotten anywhere, other than the opportunities to search when people give us some kind of tip. We take advantage of that, hoping it brings something, and yet fearing finding something.

Artist Suzette Starr presented Morin’s mother Diane with a painting during the vigil.

“My hope is that it brings the family some comfort. It’s also to bring more awareness of all the missing and murdered women we do have.”

The painting, depicting a woman walking into the woods alone, represents all missing and murdered Indigenous women, Starr said, who is from Little Pine First Nation.