Family members are expanding their search for Shawnee Morita Inyallie, missing from the Hope area for three weeks.
Three family members canvassed homeless camps in Chilliwack on Thursday, Aug. 2, and are planning a highway search between Agassiz and Hope Sunday, August 12. Inyallie was known to visit Chilliwack to cash her cheque, she has also spent time in Agassiz and often hitchhikes the roads connecting Hope to these other Fraser Valley communities.
“We’ve been out looking for my daughter today, she’s been missing for three weeks…She’s 5’3″, 26 years old, (with) light brown hair. Her eyes will roll up at any time without her medication. She walks with her head to the side. She’s a very happy-go-lucky girl, she talks to everybody,” said Inyallie’s mother Rena Monroe Aug 2. “She’s bubbly.”
Monroe and her sisters Linda Kay Peters and Juanita Pete canvassed several areas in Chilliwack where homeless people are known to camp — behind big-box stores, hotels and by the railway tracks, stopping when they saw people who looked like they were sleeping rough to talk with them. They asked around at the Salvation Army and Ruth and Naomi’s Mission in Chilliwack, handing out flyers.
“We’re somewhat getting worried now because she has not picked up any of her cheques for the past three weeks and she always picks them up Monday mornings, and she’s been quite diligent about that. So we’re getting quite worried,” Peters said.
Inyallie also takes medication regularly, and the family is worried as she left her backpack with her medication behind.
Peters said Inyallie is friendly and sometimes naive with people, she accepts rides from strangers and talks to anyone. Peters fears she could be talked into going somewhere with someone.
With no concrete leads to go on after the August 2 search in Chilliwack, the family is organizing a large-scale search on August 12 along Highway 7 from Agassiz to Hope – a stretch Inyallie is known to travel.
Any member of the public willing to help is invited to meet at the bandstand in Hope’s Memorial Park at 6 a.m. Sunday, August 12. Participants must wear a high visibility vest and be able to walk long distances, the Finding Our Shawnee Facebook event stated.
The family has also been receiving tips and working them into a timeline, which ends abruptly around July 15 or 16. Author Terese Marie Mailhot of Seabird Island First Nation has donated a $1,000 reward for tips leading to Inyallie being found.
Inyallie’s disappearance is still a priority, Staff Sgt. Karol Rehdner said, and he asks anyone with information – no matter how small – to contact the Hope RCMP.
“We encourage anyone that has any information, regardless of how they feel, if it’s worthwhile or not. Everything at this point … is worthwhile, big or small. Again, it’s a puzzle piece and they’ll never know where it is that that fits into the puzzle that we’re building here,” Rehdner said.
The Hope RCMP has two members dedicated solely to the search for Inyallie, and the rest of the detachment is also tied into the investigation.
“We knew her. It was someone we saw every single day. Somebody in this office would have contact with her every single day,” Rehdner said. “We remain hopeful, and we’re dedicated to locating her alive and well.”
Rehdner assured the whole Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment is well-aware of her disappearance, as she is known to have spent time in Chilliwack and Agassiz.
Inyallie is described by police as an Aboriginal female with black hair and brown eyes, 163 centimetres tall (5′ 4″) and weighing 54 kilograms (120 pounds).
Anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts is asked to contact Hope RCMP at 604-869-7750 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
“Just help us find her please, because we love her and we need her home,” Inyallie’s aunt Juanita Pete pleaded.
The family is also accepting donations of gas and grocery cards to help with the search, as many of Inyallie’s family members are spending most of their days searching for her.
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