The Misery Machine - Where is Ashley Morin?

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

As we've talked about in previous episodes, the treatment of Indigenous and First Nations people, specifically women, in Canada is unacceptable. Today we're sharing a case with you courtesy of our friends at Occultae Veritatis Podcast. If you have any information, please utilize the links below.   Tipline Email: shorturl.at/pHKMX Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477 https://www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=206# https://www.facebook.com/bringashleymorinhome/ https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/timeline-a-look-at-the-tiki-laverdiere-homicide-investigation-1.4543609

Hey guys, we're the misery machine. I'm Drew Bay. And I'm Yergy. And today we have something a little different for you. We're doing a signal boost for Oud over at Occulte Veritatus. You might remember him from an earlier episode that we did on Ed Kemper. His podcast is covering the disappearance of Ashley Morin, who is an indigenous girl from Canada, who has gone missing. The Canadian government and the RCMP aren't doing a whole lot to solve her case.

Uda's put together an interview with her family representative that he would like to get out to the public to keep her case in the media. You've probably heard me bring up in the past how people in Canada and the Canadian government treats their First Nation, indigenous people. There's a lot of unsolved killings that happen, especially of indigenous women in Canada. It's very tragic. Anything that we can do to help a case like this get solved, I'm all four. Having spent a lot of time in Canada, this definitely means something to me. If you know anything at all about this case, there's a tip line, email, and phone number in the show notes in the description. So if you know anything, please, even if it's small. So without further ado, where is Ashley Morin? Hello, I'm Ud-Galifrey from the Occulte Veritatis podcast. Today I got the

opportunity to sit down with Janine Moran, the sister of Ashley Moran, with Krista Fox, a woman who has been advocating for a missing indigenous woman named Ashley Moran for years now. She

has been a large part of the movement for the community in North Balford and the community in Ashley Moran's life to pursue this case. They have not gotten much help from the local police. and it's been up to them to raise a lot of the money themselves

and to conduct a lot of the investigations themselves and, you know, do the hard work of bringing awareness to the case. Krista and all of Ashley's family has worked very hard to bring awareness and we're just trying to help them with that. If you don't know who I am, I'm the host of a totally different podcast than the podcast this feed is on. But I felt that this message was important enough to contact fellow podcasters and to pass this story on. The reality is the time to recover Ashley and bring her home is running short.

And we need government to step in and government to help the family bring Ashley home, whether that means people coming in and providing tips to the people investigating or pressuring the government to provide resources or equipment to help find her. But here is that whole interview. First, I would like you to introduce yourself and how you became involved in Ashley's life. So once again, my name is Christopher, and I am the family spokesperson for the Morin and Bird Families. How I first became involved is, believe it or not, our community is quite a smaller closer-knit-type community.

So everybody knows everybody or, you know, their kids, or, you know, their grandparents, or you know somebody in their lives. So that's actually... I was born in North Battleford. I was away until I was 15 and came back. So I have known Ashley's mom and dad probably since I was about 17 years old.

And I would have... I would consider myself at that time, with both parents. It was Janine and I actually, I have two jobs. I work a full-time job Monday to Friday, and then I work a part-time job Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings. And so does Ashley's sister Janine.

So through that, we ended up getting really close. So I think Janine, I've been at my second job. for I think 12 years or so and Janine has kind of came and went a couple times. So it was after the last time she came back. Her sister was already missing. So through

that connection, we started talking about it and I started, you know, getting myself more involved, asking how I could help, those sorts of things. And through that, again, also Ashley's mom likes to play bingo, so she's quite often

there also. So it was that relationship the three of us kind of made probably September, October of 2018, when it became really close-knit. Since then, like I say, I do most of the speaking. As you can understand, Diane is unable to talk to anybody in the public or newspaper or anything like that. she actually has a hard time speaking about Ashley's disappearance as a whole. But when we are alone, we quite often talk about ash and what she used to do and where she'd go play ball, all that kind of stuff. So through that, I gained a really close relationship. They have since adopted me into their family, so she calls me her girl, and Janina is my sister.

And through First Nations kinship, we were able to build that relationship with them. So I guess first and foremost, we'll talk about Ashley a little bit. Unfortunately, again, I had known Ash throughout her life because I had known her parents, but not close. So we could say hi, I knew she was Diane and Lyndon's kid, I knew she was Janine's sister. And the one thing that I'll always keep stuck in my mind, and I think it keeps me going a lot of times, is her smile. she had the most biggest, beautifulest, beaming smile. And I'm sure it was, you know, in some of her, you know, ups and downs that everybody goes through in life. No matter where you've seen her, she always had a smile on her face.

So that's something that really sticks with me. She was outgoing, but in her own way. You had to be in her circle. If you were in her circle, then I bet you most of it. Most of her friends would say she was very outgoing amongst them. She was a hard worker. She worked at the casino for 10 plus years. You know, she raised a little girl of her partners.

She was madly in love with Natalie. Six-time FSIN soccer champion. Oh, wow. Even before that, Diane talks about when she was younger and playing ball, but she would play in the boys league and she would kick ass even then you know so she was hockey

I see lots of hockey pictures of her you know all girls hockey and she's right in there so very very sports oriented. She loved her sports she loved her family and she sure loved Natalie who was the little girl that she raised

it sounds like she was involved in like many different people's lives like from being a teammate to being a co-worker to just being, you know, a nice smile on somebody's day. It sounds like she's, like, touched a lot of people. Absolutely. It's not uncommon to run into two dozen people a day, you know, that have nothing but good things to say about her. Oh, I used to coach her. Oh, she was such a good player.

Oh, you know, I went to school with her. Oh, I, you know, I worked with her at the casino, everything. And everybody says the same thing. her smile. So it was just something that's embedded in our heads. And like I say, on some of my roughest days, working through this with the family, I think of that smile.

It keeps me going. Yeah. Yeah, you've got to have something to focus on so you can continue fighting, eh? When did you find out about Ashley's disappearance? So again, I'm going to go by, from what I've been told, just because I wasn't involved right in the beginning.

My understanding that she spoke to Mom the last day was July 1st and was last spoken to or seen July 10th of 2018. She was reported missing. Actually, it was eight or ten days later simply because nobody knew she was missing. she would go visit friends or family and wouldn't stop by it, mum for a few days at a time so that wasn't out of the ordinary.

But we do understand that through some things that happened that I will speak publicly about but they were able to determine about eight days later that she had not in fact contacted anybody. And my understanding is through a newspaper clipping that they were looking for a van

that she was last seen on 96th or 97th in North Battlefield just about on the most western side of the city down by a local John Paul 2 high school Oh yeah Was in that area Yeah I used to go to John Paul 2 Yeah like I said it's There's a reason that I actually

I really wanted to talk to you guys because it was so it was so disappointing but not surprising to hear just how the RCMP has kind of treated this case. So like I guess when did they become involved in Ashley's disappearance? So my understanding is

the RCMP in North Battleford were involved with the statement taking and then possibly stopping by mom's house to pick up something. As far as I know, that is the only, and I repeat, only involvement that the local RCMP have had in this case. We deal with major crimes, and we do have a very good contact there, and we have support from Saskatoon Victim Services, and we have support from Saskatoon Victim services, and we wouldn't be where we are today or still holding it together, I don't think,

without Dorothea Swiftful's help, and she works at Victim Services at the Saskatoon City Police. Also, with the Saskatoon City Police, as you know, we've done a walk two years in a row, and we unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we start in Saskatoon, as we have a huge support at Saskatoon City Police and surrounding areas. So we start from here. Also, we have amazing help and support from PA. So the deputy police chief there, Jason Stonechild, is, we met him last year, and we've had so much help and assistance in the things we want to do over the last year

than we've had in the full two years. So it's been amazing support from Prince Albert. Also, our main contact, and I think she's family liaison might be her title. I'm not sure. She does everything and anything we need her to do. But she is also based at the Aboriginal policing, and I believe it's based at a PA also. So, yeah, as for RCMP support, locally, I would say it's very minimal.

and actually I don't think we have any contact with them, really. No, we meet at their office when we meet major crimes, but besides that we have nothing there. And I just want to reintegrate here that that doesn't mean we don't have support in our community because we have some amazing people in our circle such as BATC, like just local. My aunt has actually done two auction for Ashley's now to help us with the reward money, and it is now sitting at $20,000.

And that's a huge thanks to her support, putting that all together, but we have to remember that those gifts they bid on come from people. So there's obviously a lot of local support that way, and I couldn't even begin, you know, to thank those people. Some of them I don't know. Some of them were donated anonymously. But that's why I just wanted to make sure that I said, in fact, we don't have the support of local police, but we do have local community members who step up each and every time.

Holiday Inn has been amazing. It's a new hotel in our community. And I have to mention them simply when we need it. We also are very close with Tiki Lava Deer's family. If you get the chance to look up her story, please do. But when they come for court or whatever they come for, Holiday Inn, will help that family immensely. We needed help for our recent search this past weekend for seven rooms.

Due to COVID, everybody had to be separate and everything. And again, Holiday Inn stepped up. So for sure, we need to acknowledge them. Like I said, we have so many generous supporters in our community that it's hard to start mentioning or thinking of people because everybody's kind of popping in my head. But we do, and I want to make sure if any of the listeners are from the North Balford area, that we absolutely thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you're doing to help us bring Ash home. Because without them, I don't know where we'd be. When I was reading about it, I was amazed by how much the community's stepped up where the police wouldn't, doing investigations.

And, like, I just know the little I've read about it. I understand that the police didn't want or didn't, for whatever reason, go forward with investigating any further than the initial contact and the initial note-taking. What has the community done to, I guess, investigate further where the police had, I guess, dropped the ball, if that's the right phrasing? I actually have, don't even know how to answer that. I don't know what they do, but I do know that there have been, I think, at one point we had talked and there was thousands of tips coming into the Crime Stoppers line. And I mean, we get sent regular messages, emails, Facebook messages, whatever the case may be of people saying, you know, this or that or the other.

anything that we get absolutely immediately get screenshot and sent into major crimes. And with understanding, they cannot and will not share anything with us. And it's understanding, you know, they need to make sure that they, you know, keep their stuff tight-knit. So if and when there is an arrest, they have a solid case that we're able to move forward with. So we totally get it. It was very frustrating in the beginning. There was many mad screaming, crying.

Those guys at major crimes have put up with me more than a few times. But, yeah, when I get the chance to cool down and think about it, I absolutely get it. They cannot share anything with that. I will say right now I cannot and do not really know anything other than what is in the news about where Ash went, who she was with, that type of stuff. I can't. I don't know. I can be honest that, you know, we. just know that she's not at home. That's all we know for sure, and that's where she needs to be.

So whatever it may look like, we need to bring her home. And the people that are responsible for her disappearance need to step up and give us some answers. And just imagine for a minute if that was your sister or your child or your grandchild or your cousin or your auntie. imagine for a minute how you would feel. I can tell you right now that it's not a good feeling, and there's nothing worse than watching her mom and dad suffer the way they are. I don't care who it is, what you're doing, what you did at the time, I don't care if there's drugs, I don't care if there's alcohol, I don't give a shit.

All I know is you know, and no matter what, whoever is responsible for this, I know deep down you have a heart. All of us have a heart. And you need to bring this family some closure, the ability to heal and move on. For other people that are listening that maybe living in North Balford or Saskatoon or bigger surrounding areas,

what's, and maybe they're sitting there listening to this like frustrated, wondering what they can do, Where would you point them? I would highly recommend if you know anything, if you suspect anything, if there's somebody in your life that has spoken about this, whatever the case may be, to call crime stoppers anonymously. That is the best way. I mean, they can come through any one of us.

We're on Facebook, where we ask that you do not send anything to Mom. Absolutely nothing. If you need to reach out, Janine Warren's on Facebook. Myself, Crystal Fox, is on Facebook. There's an auction for Ashley Page that you can send stuff in anonymously. There are many ways, but first and foremost, do it anonymously through crime stoppers. The number for Crime Stoppers, Saskatchewan is 1-800-222-8477. If you also go to their website by searching for Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers,

they also have a totally anonymous way you can enter a tip on their website. What would you like to see as more help from either the government to the RCMP? If you could order them to help find Ashley in any means possible, what could they do for this? Well, I know there was some, there was a MMIW report done a couple of years. years ago or a year or so ago. And I got a reporter call me and asked me to comment on it. And I said, sorry, I haven't read the recommendations yet. There's 130 some of them or something. So I said, can you give me till 4 o'clock? I'll read through them. So he said, yeah, and I did. And the only

thing that stuck out to me, and I still remember it, I don't remember the exact wording. But in that report that was supposed to for recommendations. One of them said a closer relationship between police and families. Okay, that recommendation report has been here over a year. And here you and I sit

and I'm still telling you that North Battle for Local Police have not helped us. The one thing that I did ask of them, one simple thing that I asked once I got involved and said, major crimes is all over. They are investigating, and that's what we need them to do. Do you think you could have a local RCMP officer, male, female, doesn't matter who,

just stop in and check on mom. Once a week, once every two weeks. Just say hi, Diane, how are you doing? You know, anything. That has never happened. They have never been to her doorstep, just for a checkup. So what would I ask for?

First and foremost, the first thing that I would ask for is somebody needs to give us a boat with the sonar system. That is the first thing on my wish list. And soon, not the fall, not before snowfalls. We need it yesterday. That's the first thing. So I guess with that, it would go back to if I was asking the government would be more funds towards these people who have

these boats or these organizations that are helping, give them a few extra dollars so that they can come and help us out. Otherwise, I think it's just, I guess, the support. And it's tough, because part of me wants to say, tell me what the hell is going on. What are you guys doing? What are we, have we gotten anywhere? And the other part of me saying, no, you know better than that. They can't share that information. Like, I totally, I totally empathize with what you're saying about police because, like,

I've been on a terror researching for a different part of the podcast that we produce about police training. and they've gone farther and farther away from like community training and like I shouldn't say farther away like that aspect has never been there and like if they were involved in the life of their community and like they knew Ashley's mom and they knew Ashley and like you know they had a stake because they cared for these people you think they they might have stepped up I'm not even sure what to say or think on their behalf anymore I just know that we will keep plugging along whether we have their support or not. We will not give up until we get Ash home. And we'll keep doing what we do. Like I said, with COVID, it set us back a little bit, but we still went forward with what we needed to do.

And the reason that we do, the things we do, such as the walk, you know, anything like that is simply because we need to keep her face out there. We need to keep her name out there. We need to remind people that she's not home where she should be. And we need those responsible for her disappearance to know that we will never give up. For lack of a better word, they effed with the wrong family, because we are never going to give up, ever.

So it may take till my dying day, there's still a generation behind me. My kids are passionate about that. You know, they want to bring her home. So however long it takes us, we're in for the long haul. I only found out about Ashley, like, through the walk because my roommate wanted to go on on this walk to North Balford. And I really do think that you're catching the ears of many. And we're going to try and do our part to make sure that as many people as we can will listen to the story as well and we'll know her name as well. Absolutely.

And we are very thankful for this. So as I mentioned, when you asked what was on my wish list, and I set a sonar boat, we are going out onto the water. As soon as we possibly can, I believe we have enough money raised in our fundraising account that we could cover the cost of it. So we will be heading out on the river as soon as we can find somebody to assist us.

I said my understanding is we need the waters were really high over the weekend so our cadaver dogs were not able to pick anything up but we do believe we're in the right location so we just need to get the means to get out onto that water and and start searching again we need we need closure people we need to be able to help mom start healing she's never going to heal until we can bring her baby girl home. So please understand that when you hear this. We need to bring her home, whatever that may look like. We cannot start on that journey until we have her home. Yeah, anybody listening, if you're listening to this and you want to do something, then the advice was, given out.

You know, especially if you live in the community's involved, it's extra important that you provide your voice, remember her name. You know, there's a community of people just hurting, and they need their baby back. And that's exactly it. Even if you're not familiar with their case, if you know, nothing about our community or anybody there,

or that's one thing that you really, really can do to help is go look for her page. She has a missing Ashley Moran page. We have an auction for Ashley Pace. We have a second annual walk page. You can Google her name and a picture comes up. Go ahead and share it. You know, tell them you we're listening to this podcast, you know,

and you heard her story and you went out and you reached out and you found her picture and you shared it. You know, even that's a help. Any little thing, it can, you know, as long as we, I just want to flood Facebook or whatever other. I don't know. There's other things to Twitter and I don't know what. We're on there, too. Okay. Well, I'm not, as you can tell.

I'm past that age of trying to figure out what those are. Facebook is difficult enough. I usually have to hand my phone to Janine and can you do this? Can you fix this? Because I don't know. But, again, back to absolutely if that's the least you can do from the bottom. of our hearts were thankful. You know, one share of her picture from somebody who has no idea what this beautiful girl

means to us. Just sharing her picture is, you know, that's one more person that got to see it and shared it with their two, three hundred friends. Again, just as a wrap-up, if I could say a couple things. Sure. First and foremost, for those of you listening who might have the answers to our questions, once again, there is $20,000. It's not in a police account.

It's in our account, an account that my aunt set up. So we do not need police approval to go ahead and give you our reward. What we need from you is a location or an application. or an arrest because of your tip, and we will absolutely meet you at that bank and hand you over that cash. So first and foremost, there is $20,000 sitting in a bank account waiting for you. Just come and get it. Come and give us our answers.

The second thing I want everybody to know is, and I've said it a couple times throughout this interview, is we will never give up. We will never, ever give up. Ashley is not a statistic. She is a daughter, an aunt, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece, a cousin, a goddaughter. She is all of those things. so when the government or whoever writes up all these fancy things that happen in government,

I just want everybody to know that she's not one of those statistics, that she is somebody that is very, very loved and extremely missed. Hey, you there, sitting there listening to this episode. There's something you can do to help. This is a situation where time is of the essence, and we need public pressure on the government to help this family bring Ashley home. So do you have a podcast your own? Do you have a YouTube channel? Do you have a TikTok?

Do you have a Twitter? Do you have a Facebook? Do you have an Instagram? Do you have any way of reaching people to get their attention? I give you full permission and full encouragement to rip this MP3 and upload it wherever you feel fit to spread the word about Ashley Moran. We want to bring her home. The family wants her home. Let's not let Ashley become another statistic.

Spread the word.