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The Saskatoon woman who went missing with a seven-year-old boy in late July is facing charges in both Canada and the United States.
During a media conference Monday, the Saskatoon Police Service’s deputy chief of operations, Randy Huisman, said Dawn Walker is facing charges in Canada of abduction and public mischief, and charges in the U.S. related to using false identification to cross the border.
Further charges may arise as the criminal investigation progresses, Huisman said.
Walker, 48, and the boy were last seen July 22 in Saskatoon at a business on the 300 block of Owen Manor. A missing person investigation began the evening of July 24 after Walker was reported missing, police said.
Searches were conducted in the area to find the pair with no luck. On Friday, Walker and the boy were found in a rental unit in Oregon City, Ore.
Huisman said the police search examined the circumstances and involved an extensive river search that eventually turned into a search that spanned into the United States.
On Monday, Saskatoon police said Walker used false identity documents to illegally cross into the United States. Police say they followed the trail of evidence to figure out Walker and the boy were in Oregon.
“We followed the evidence trail and from the moment she was reported missing, we started with the missing persons search and then the evidence led us to where we are today,” Huisman told reporters Monday morning. “The evidence speaks for itself.”
The missing persons investigation is currently winding down, while the criminal investigation into the disappearances of Walker and the boy is beginning.
Walker is in police custody in the United States and was to appear in an Oregon courtroom Monday. A media release from Saskatoon police said they were consulting with Saskatchewan justice officials to arrange for her extradition to Canada in the future.
Huisman said the SPS has been informed by U.S. authorities that they are “confident” Walker will be “further detained” in America “for the short term.”
The boy was reunited with a legal guardian on Friday and returned to Canada on Sunday.
The SPS thanked the general public, the RCMP, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, the Canadian Border Services Agency, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection for their assistance in finding Walker.
Calling the search wide-reaching and multi-faceted, Huisman also thanked American partners, including the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Oregon City Police Department, and police services in Billings, Mont., and West Linn, Ore.
Huisman said they have no confirmation of a motive and don’t know why Walker travelled into the U.S. illegally.
The cost of the search that was hoping to locate Walker and the boy doesn’t have a specific dollar sign on it yet but Huisman commented that “it will be significant.” It is unknown at this time whether Walker will have to pay any of it back.
“The minute that we were able to confirm that she was alive and had left the city of Saskatoon, that’s when the river search was suspended,” Huisman noted when asked.
To locate Walker, Huisman said police obtained things like cellphone and bank records, and examined her history of associations with people and family.
“All those things are taken into account and when we start seeing anomalies, we start going in that direction,” Huisman said.
Police are still investigating the path and means Walker would have used to cross the border and travel into the U.S., including if she received assistance from anyone to do so.
When asked why Walker might have travelled to Oregon, Husiman didn’t have an answer.
“I have no idea,” he said, later adding that police don’t know whether Oregon was a final destination for the pair either.
“What I can say is that when we’re dealing with all of our partner agencies across the border as well as in Canada, we can determine the trail that she followed.”
He also confirmed Saskatoon police were the ones to determine Walker had travelled out of the country to Oregon through their own investigation.
Amber Alert accountability
Huisman was asked whether police should have put out an Amber Alert.
He reiterated the criteria for an Amber Alert was not fulfilled provincially or locally because there was no imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death to Walker or the boy.
“If we’re following the guidelines of the province and locally, it still wouldn’t have met the parameters,” Huisman clarified, though he said police did struggle with deciding whether or not to issue an alert.
He said there will always be questions about whether the criteria for Amber Alerts should be amended, but it’s hard to say whether a situation like this would change it.
“You have to understand that Amber Alerts are for serious incidents where we believe that that child is in … immediate risk of imminent harm or death,” Huisman said. “We don’t want to have it overused when it’s not appropriate.”
Huisman added that Amber Alerts are taken extremely seriously by Saskatoon police.
