The Trail Went Cold - Episode 295 - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Explicit content warning
09/21/22 • 58 min
3 Listeners
May 26, 1986. Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories. After returning home from a trip, the sister of 15-year old Mary Ann Birmingham enters their residence and discovers that Mary Ann has been stabbed to death. Months later, a local resident named Jopey Atsiqtaq pops up on the radar as a potential suspect after he is charged with the similar stabbing deaths of two other victims. Even though Atsiqtaq is initially charged with killing Mary Ann, he denies any involvement and since the evidence is deemed insufficient for him to stand trial, the crime is never solved. Mary Ann Birmingham’s murder is just the first case we’ll be covering on this week’s special episode of “The Trail Went Cold” about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from Northern Canada. In total, we’ll be exploring nine unsolved cold cases involving Indigenous female victims which took place in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The nine victims are 15-year old Ann Birmingham, 38-year old Tabitha Kalluk, 46-year old Della “Jochebed” Ootoova, 18-year old Leona Brule, 15-year old Charlene Catholique, 24-year old Mary Rose Keadjuk, 17-year old Mariella Lennie, 39-year old Dorothy Abel and 22-year old Angela Meyer.
If you have information about the murder of Mary Ann Birmingham, please contact the Iqaluit detachment of the RCMP at (867) 979-0123. If you have information about any of the other featured cases from the Northwest Territories, please contact their RCMP’s Historical Case Unit at (867) 669-1111. If you have information about any of the featured cases from Nunavut, please contact the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
The Trail Went Cold has made donations to the following organizations in support of Indigenous women’s and girls’ issues in Canada.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada: https://nwac.ca
Amnesty International’s No More Stolen Sisters program: https://www.amnesty.ca/what-we-do/no-more-stolen-sisters/
Additional Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mary-ann-birmingham-anniversary-mmiw-1.4131421
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/65674after_30_years_iqaluit_girls_murder_still_unsolved/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/tabitha-niaqutiaq-kalluk
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/della-ootoova
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/leona-mae-brule
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/476716020/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/475559912/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/charlene-candice-catholique
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/aunt-remembers-charlene-catholique-1.5660623
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-files-what-happened-to-charlene-catholique-part-1/
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-files-what-happened-to-charlene-catholique-part-2/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mary-rose-keadjuk-remains-identified-1.4547174
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-what-happened-to-mary-rose-keadjuk/
May 26, 1986. Frobisher Bay, Northwest Territories. After returning home from a trip, the sister of 15-year old Mary Ann Birmingham enters their residence and discovers that Mary Ann has been stabbed to death. Months later, a local resident named Jopey Atsiqtaq pops up on the radar as a potential suspect after he is charged with the similar stabbing deaths of two other victims. Even though Atsiqtaq is initially charged with killing Mary Ann, he denies any involvement and since the evidence is deemed insufficient for him to stand trial, the crime is never solved. Mary Ann Birmingham’s murder is just the first case we’ll be covering on this week’s special episode of “The Trail Went Cold” about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from Northern Canada. In total, we’ll be exploring nine unsolved cold cases involving Indigenous female victims which took place in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. The nine victims are 15-year old Ann Birmingham, 38-year old Tabitha Kalluk, 46-year old Della “Jochebed” Ootoova, 18-year old Leona Brule, 15-year old Charlene Catholique, 24-year old Mary Rose Keadjuk, 17-year old Mariella Lennie, 39-year old Dorothy Abel and 22-year old Angela Meyer.
If you have information about the murder of Mary Ann Birmingham, please contact the Iqaluit detachment of the RCMP at (867) 979-0123. If you have information about any of the other featured cases from the Northwest Territories, please contact their RCMP’s Historical Case Unit at (867) 669-1111. If you have information about any of the featured cases from Nunavut, please contact the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
The Trail Went Cold has made donations to the following organizations in support of Indigenous women’s and girls’ issues in Canada.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada: https://nwac.ca
Amnesty International’s No More Stolen Sisters program: https://www.amnesty.ca/what-we-do/no-more-stolen-sisters/
Additional Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mary-ann-birmingham-anniversary-mmiw-1.4131421
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/65674after_30_years_iqaluit_girls_murder_still_unsolved/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/tabitha-niaqutiaq-kalluk
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/della-ootoova
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/leona-mae-brule
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/476716020/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/475559912/
https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/charlene-candice-catholique
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/aunt-remembers-charlene-catholique-1.5660623
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-files-what-happened-to-charlene-catholique-part-1/
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-files-what-happened-to-charlene-catholique-part-2/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mary-rose-keadjuk-remains-identified-1.4547174
https://www.nnsl.com/news/yk-cold-case-what-happened-to-mary-rose-keadjuk/
Previous Episode
The Trail Went Cold - Episode 294 - Roger Ellison
1 RecommendationsFebruary 10, 1981. Cedaredge, Colorado. After showing up at Cedaredge High School, 17-year old senior Roger Ellison places his books inside his locker, but he never attends any of his classes that day and vanishes without a trace. Months later, one of Roger’s teachers comes under suspicion when he allegedly makes some bizarre statements to Roger’s mother, but no evidence links him to Roger’s disappearance. Over the years, there are number of odd developments, including a deathbed confession from a witness who claimed he saw Roger being held at gunpoint in the woods, but Roger’s body is never found and there are no answers about what happened to him. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we explore the perplexing case of a student who somehow managed to disappear from his school.
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Delta County Sheriff’s Office at (970) 874-2000
Join us on Saturday, September 17 at 8:00pm ET for an online streaming marathon where we will be watching classic segments from “Unsolved Mysteries”. You can enter our screening room by clicking on this link.
Additional Reading:
https://charleyproject.org/case/roger-john-ellison
https://findrogerellison.wordpress.com
https://www.newspapers.com/image/538795986/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/538796042/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/538796084/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/540023753/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/535933268/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/540031025/
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
Next Episode
The Trail Went Cold - Episode 296 - Morgan Nick
1 RecommendationsJune 9, 1995. Alma, Arkansas. While attending a Little League baseball game with her mother, six-year old Morgan Nick goes off to play with some other kids before she vanishes without a trace. Morgan’s friends claim that she was spoken to by an unidentified man standing next to a red pick-up truck, so it is suspected that this man might have abducted her. Over two decades later, a deceased sex offender named Billy Jack Lincks is publicly named as a person of interest, but he has not been conclusively connected to the case and Morgan has still not been found. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we will be exploring a tragic missing children’s case which has gone unsolved for over 27 years. In addition, we will also discuss the unsolved 2001 disappearance of three-month-old Jacqueline Vasquez, who was abducted from a swap meet in Avondale, Arizona. Special thanks to listener Chardonnay Brown for narrating the opening of this episode.
If you have any information on the disappearance of Morgan Nick, please contact the FBI, the Arkansas State Police at (501) 618-8000 or the Alma Police Department at (479) 632-3333. If you have any information about the disappearance of Jacqueline Vasquez, please contact the Avondale Police Department at (623) 333-7001.
Additional Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Morgan_Nick
http://unsolved.com/gallery/morgan-nick/
http://charleyproject.org/case/morgan-chauntel-nick
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/18/grace.coldcase.morgan.nick/index.html
http://5newsonline.com/2017/12/19/no-evidence-found-in-spiro-relating-to-morgan-nick-case/
https://www.4029tv.com/article/billy-jack-lincks-morgan-nick/38199571#
https://www.stillmissingmorgan.com
https://unsolved.com/gallery/jacqueline-castaneda/
http://charleyproject.org/case/jacqueline-vasquez
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Jacqueline_Vasquez
“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.
“The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on Vokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website.
The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.
All music is composed by Vince Nitro.
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