The Current - A woman’s search for truth about her sister’s murder

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Sonya Cywink was found murdered in London, Ont. in 1994, but her killer was never found. The Anishinaabe woman’s  sister Meggie has spent decades seeking answers, and growing increasingly frustrated with police. Now, Meggie’s relentless quest for justice has uncovered new details, with the help of The Fifth Estate and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Walker.

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Frontburner wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast. In the summer of 1994, Sonya Siwink's body was found in a small park 40 kilometers outside of London, Ontario. The 31-year-old was found in a ditch. Her partially clothed body bruised from blunt force trauma. And since then, her murder has remained unsolved. More than 30 years have passed, and Sonia's sister, Meggie Siwink, has refused to give up in her search for answers,

returning every year to the site where her sister's body was found. She hit the streets of London, where her sister was last seen looking for leads. Now, a Fifth Estate investigation uncovers new details about the case. In a sister's promise, the Fifth Estate follows Maggie as she tries to find out who killed her sister. Award-winning investigative journalist Connie Walker hosts this latest episode. She joins me in our Toronto studio to tell us more about the story.

And we also have Maggie Seinwink on the line from the town of Alberta, Virginia. Good morning to you both. Good morning. Connie, let me start with you. You've looked into several cases of the missing murdered Indigenous women and girls. What drew you to this case? You know, in my reporting over the last 10 years, I've met so many family members who have really been forced to become advocates for their lost loved ones.

Even through dealing with their own grief and trauma, they feel like they need to be the voice to raise awareness and to push for justice. But there are a few family members who have taken it as far as Sonia's sister, Maggie Seidwink. Since we've been reporting this story last July, you know, I've seen her track down leads on her own, find people of interest in her sister's case, interview them, really grill them about what they know, and really conduct her own investigation into her sister's murder. And this is something, you know, I think that is incredibly remarkable in our documentary.

But also, I've also seen Maggie be so concerned about not just Sonia's case, but the hundreds of other cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Maggie, as we mentioned, it's been more than 30 years. You're still searching for answers. Have you had people who have told you, hey, maybe it's time to move on? Oh, well, certainly, you know. I think I'd like to say that, you know,

some of my family members are those people. Others are people I know at a distance. But I'm not sure what their real intention is for wanting me not to continue the search. So what keeps you going on? What keeps me going is a promise that I made to my father at my sister's funeral in 1994. And you know, as my father was passing away in 2000, he asked me not to let it go and to continue looking into what happened to my sister.

Tell us about Sonia. Sonia was, she was a very gentle and kind soul. She had an incredible ability to write. She had some beautiful poetry that she was able to write before she passed away. And as well as she was an excellent pool player and somebody who often could take me down easily and she was really pointed, dark player as well. So she was a well-rounded human being. Connie, bring us in though to what we know about what happened in her death.

Well, Sonia was living in London, Ontario when she was killed. She was last seen in her neighbourhood in East London on August 25th, 1994. That following Tuesday, a man foraging for mushroom found Sonia's body about 40 kilometers south of London at the South Walled Earthworks, which is actually First Nations settlement and now a national historic site. Now that might make it sound more popular than it is. It's actually a very small park in a very rural area of the province. And if you don't know that it's there, you could easily just drive right by it.

But from the road, there is a long entryway that goes into this wooded area. And the further you go, the more wooded and forested it becomes. And Sonia's body was found there. She was bruised and battered and partially clothed. And there's still so many unanswered questions about how she obtained those injuries, how she was brought to the park and who was involved. She was living in the east side of London at the time. And as I watched the documentary, it was a bit of an eye opener for me.

I don't know London that well, but it seemed to be a pretty hardscrabble part of London. Tell me about that and how that contributed to Sonia's lifestyle at that time. Yeah, I think it was similar in terms of, you know, it's still a struggling neighborhood. I think back then it was also a struggling neighborhood and often a focus area for London police. Then police chief Julian Fantino, around in the early 90s, was aggressively targeting drugs and prostitution in that neighborhood, in Sonia's neighborhood.

And Sonia was, you know, used drugs and was involved in sex work when she was killed. And you know, we wondered how that may have impacted the police investigation into her death and we actually interviewed one of the original investigators in her case, retired detective Chris Gason. He was a detective from a rural detachment. This was his first homicide case. And he told us there was a robust investigation into Sonia's murder that lasted about six months. But he said he never felt like they were close to solving the case. The team, he said, was kind of paired back after six months, and then

he kind of wound down after about a year. But he is still involved in working with Maggie on trying to find answers. Yeah and that's a great plot twist in this documentary when you see the retired OPP officer who was there at the original investigation now working with Maggie. Maggie you were told in 2019 essentially the police there had hit a dead end but that's not where the story ends. It's sort of almost where the story begins because that's where you get actively involved. What was it at that point in 2019 where you realized that now it's up to me? It's insinuated, I guess, by the police services that

we've got this, we'll be taking care of it, we'll be investigating any tips, any leads that come in. Every year I would check in with them. They would send out their normal press release. will be investigating any tips, any leads that come in. Every year I would check in with them, they would send out their normal press release. And I started realizing that there was a standstill, there was nothing happening. And so that's when I really began to wonder, what are they doing? And so shortly after that, they had told me,

we are at a standstill and with no new leads, no new tips, we can't move forward. So, you know, Chris, Chris and I had been in contact once a year throughout time. And we started thinking, OK, how do we generate tips? What do we do? And so I just assumed all of that time that the OPP were doing what they had to do, but it wasn't very much. So in 2019, we actually did a street campaign and we set up a table, banners, information to generate leads for the OPP.

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That's French for pancake, buddy. That's the Bare Knuckle Round, everybody. That just got sticky. Listen to the debaters wherever you get your podcasts. Maggie, at one point in this doc, and this is where my jaw dropped, is when Chris, the retired OPP officer, says that in investigations like these, cold cases, families can't rely on police. What was your reaction when you actually heard him say that out loud? I mean, the hardest part to swallow on that for me was I wish I had known that sooner.

I wish I had known that, you know, families could be involved or families could do and help and try to see what kind of tips they could garner earlier, you know, in the 10th year, in the 15th year, sooner because it really hurt me because I would have done a lot more sooner. Connie, what did you, you were in the moment, you asked the question, you got the answer. What do you think of that moment when he made that revelation?

You know, I was really surprised that he said that. You know, Chris Gason is a 30-year veteran with the Ontario Provincial Police, one of the original investigators in Sonia's case, essentially saying that family members can't rely on police and should really go out and try to do their own information. It was surprising to me that that was coming from a police officer. That is something though that I think maybe is, you know, a lot of other families have been in the position that Maggie's been in where, you know, they have irregular contact with the police force about their loved one's case.

They don't know what's actually happening in the investigation. If like Sonia's case it's still you know considered an open investigation, sometimes there's very little police will tell them about what's happening. So I feel like you know it's concerning that so many families are in this position, but also then hearing this from law enforcement directly that they shouldn't rely on police, that police forces are strapped for resources and that they should take matters into their own hands. And, Meggie, that's exactly what you've been doing

and that's what this documentary really focuses on. What do you think, Meggie, is the most promising lead that you have uncovered in your sister's murder? Well, there's been a source, I can say, that has been in contact with me for over five years. And the source, actually, we were able to meet with that individual. And from that meeting came pretty credible, I felt very credible information, you know, names, places, they are still holding back part of it.

So I believe that over time people soften and people have a conscience. And usually it's guilt that, you know, will drive somebody to want to ease their conscience. What is remarkable about what Maggie did here is that the source that she's talking about is somebody who was part of the original investigation back in 1994, somebody who the police interviewed, somebody who police believe might have information about what happened to Sonia Cywink. And it was, you know, I think Maggie is being a bit modest, but it was remarkable. She, you know, has built this relationship with this person over several years, then conducted an interview and really grilled them. That's about what they knew. And it's handed that information over to police

and it's hoping that they, you know, will follow that lead. And Connie, another big revelation from this Fifth Estate investigation was that you got the Sonia's autopsy report. And tell us about that, because that's obviously a key part in this investigation. Yes, it was something that, you know, Maggie had never seen. The original coroner's report that outlined, you know, details of how Sonia was found, and also detailed the injuries on her body. She had, you know, over 20 contusions on the front and back of her body and near her neck and face. And it also revealed that Sonja was five or six months pregnant when she died.

The coroner noted blunt force trauma to her upper body was a factor in her death, but he didn't feel like it was enough to cause her death. And the final report, which actually didn't happen until about a year later, until, uh, stamped September 1995, after the toxicology came back, he noted that cocaine was detected. And he wrote that trauma associated with cocaine intake could have caused Sonia's death, but whether it was accidental or homicide cannot be determined. And I want to really point that out because the timing of that undetermined ruling also coincided with when the police investigation seemed to wind down according to Chris Gason, the OPP officer. Maggie, how was it for you when you finally read that coroner's report?

Well, you know, it was shocking. It was heartbreaking. It was something that I think that really upset me. I had always had this vision, I think, just to control the trauma that was associated with Sonia's murder, and that she had died in a place where she had met our ancestors, you know, at a historical Indigenous neutral site. And so in thinking that for 28, 29 years, it was a

vision that I had, but to actually see it in black and white, I think it really, it really cemented the pain and the visual of her last moments. Maggie, how close do you find, how close do you feel you are to finding the answers now about what happened to your sister? I feel pretty close. I feel like, you know, it's, it's, if, um, and I want to go back to that mark, um, to the OPP because, you know, I'm still in touch with the information, which was a taped evidence that I gave the OPP, then this source would have contacted me by now and been really upset that the OPP are

on their trail. And that has not happened. And so I guess this is since July, like what have they done with the information we've given them? That's what concerns me. Connie, that's a question I have for you. What has the OPP done with the information both Maggie and the Fifth Estate have been generating?

Well, we asked the OPP for an on-camera interview, which they declined. We also sent them a list of questions about their investigation into Sonia's death, about leads that Maggie has has dug up and they said that because this is an open case they can't say very much but they do say that it is an open and active investigation. As I mentioned at the beginning Connie you've covered stories about missing and murdered indigenous women and girls for more than a decade. How do you think the conversation has changed since you started this work? Well, I think because of family members like Maggie and other advocates for this issue,

awareness certainly has improved. Absolutely. I think that there is so much more awareness around this crisis of violence, but the crisis of violence continues in our communities. In so many families, I think still are facing the same struggles to find justice for their loved ones. Obviously, the terribly upsetting news out of Winnipeg this week, the remains of Morgan Harris, are really an example of just how much work is yet to happen around trying to stem some of this violence and trying to really address some of the root causes.

And that's another great example of a family dedicated to pushing authorities, police, government for answers when it appeared that nobody wanted to cooperate. And Maggie, I know, I mean, you've been such a long-time advocate, not only for your sister's investigation, but for other families of missing and murdered Indigenous women. What do you want those families to take away from your experience?

Well, I think one of the most important pieces for families never to give up, and for families to really push police services across Canada for accountability, for, you know, more conversations, deeper conversations and the truth of what they're really doing. I mean, the fact that they keep coming back

and saying, it's an open investigation, we can't tell you anything. Well, that's exactly what they told me in 2016 when, you know, I had a meeting with the OPP in the chief corner. investigation, we can't tell you anything. Well, that's exactly what they told me in 2016 when I had a meeting with the OPP and the chief coroner. And so I got no information. And that was a face-to-face conversation. And part of the coroner's report should have been revealed at that time, and it never was. So I think the biggest thing is for families not to give up and for families to force,

force the conversations if they have to. And if they feel compelled and they have the resources and they're well enough to do it, to seek out tips and leads on their own if they have to. And we're talking a lot about other families and the bigger issue here. But, but Meggie, let's go back to Sonia. How do you want your sister to be remembered? Well, I'd like to her to be remembered as, as, you know, a human being whose family fought

and never gave up on her murder. I think, you know, that is telling and that is really, you know, I'm not sure how many other families have done this for 30 years, is an eye-opener to the lack of response and not being able to get a deeper conversation with police services. So I want families, I want her legacy to be, you know, a testament that loved ones do not have to give up when answers are not being given by police services or the government. Connie, last word to you, okay?

This summer will mark six years since the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report concluded containing 231 calls for justice. When you hear this story, you've lived this story now with Meggie for months. Are we any closer really now to changing the mindset and delivering on some of these recommendations? I mean very few of the calls to justice have have been implemented, very very few. I think that's that's a sad reality that although this awareness is growing, although there's a greater understanding about the rates of violence and the crisis of violence and what families are really going through, often, as Maggie said, on their own.

It's still so clear that there is so much work yet to do. Maggie, Connie, thank you so much. Maggie, you made a promise to your dad, and I'm sure your dad is so proud of what you have done to keep your promise, both to your sister and to him. It's an outstanding documentary and thank you so much for joining us today. Connie, great work as always. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Meggie Siwink is the sister of Sonia Siwink and an advocate for families of missing and

murdered Indigenous women and girls. And Connie Walker is an award-winning investigative journalist. It is the fifth estate at its best. It's called A Sister's Promise. It airs tonight, 9 p.m. on CBC TV and Jam, or watch it on YouTube after 1 p.m. Eastern Time today.