Desiree OldWoman
Case reference: 2012020038
Missing since: August 27, 2011
Missing from: Siksika Nation, Alberta, Canada
Date of Birth: December 5, 1990
Age at Disappearance: 20 years
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Indigenous
Eye Color: Brown
Hair: Brown, Short
Height: 163 cm / 5ft 4in
Weight: 75 kgs / 165 lbs
Physical Build: Heavy
Complexion: Dark
Desiree was last seen wearing: A brown sweater and black or brown track pants with a red stripe. She was not wearing shoes at the time.
Notable: Desiree has autism and is non-verbal. She also has very good teeth.
Details: Desiree Oldwoman was a young woman from the Siksika First Nation in Alberta when she seemingly vanished into the night in August 2011. More than fifteen years later, despite extensive searches, numerous tips and repeated appeals from both police and her family, there has been no definitive answer as to what happened to her.
Desiree was born on December 5, 1990, and was 20 years old when she disappeared. She is autistic and non-verbal, although police have said she is able to write her name. She required support in her daily life and could not independently care for herself, making her disappearance particularly urgent.
On the evening of August 27, 2011, Desiree was at her home on the Siksika First Nation, approximately 100 kilometres southeast of Calgary. The RCMP has placed her last confirmed sighting at approximately 8:20pm. Sometime afterward, Desiree apparently left the residence. By the following morning, she had not returned, and she was reported missing to the Gleichen RCMP.
Desiree was known to wander from home occasionally, but she would normally be found in familiar places nearby. This time was different. She did not return, and searches of the places she was known to frequent failed to locate her.
Her home was located near Highway 901, and investigators considered the possibility that Desiree had made her way toward the highway after leaving home. Early reporting indicated there may have been a sighting of her walking along Highway 901. This raised another possibility that a passing motorist may have encountered Desiree and offered her a ride, perhaps without realizing that she was vulnerable or that people would soon be desperately searching for her.
If someone did pick Desiree up, investigators had no way of knowing where she might have been taken. Early in the investigation, police even considered the possibility that she could have been driven toward Calgary or another community well outside the original search area.
The effort to find Desiree was extensive. RCMP officers, community members and search teams combed the surrounding area on foot and with quads. Search dogs were brought in, and aircraft searched from above. Land and waterways were examined as investigators tried to find any indication of where Desiree had gone.
By late September 2011, searchers had reportedly covered an area approximately 12 kilometres by 11 kilometres surrounding her home. Yet despite the scale of the operation, they found nothing that conclusively explained her disappearance.
About a month after Desiree vanished, the RCMP and Crime Stoppers conducted a reenactment in the hope that recreating the circumstances surrounding her disappearance would jog someone’s memory. Investigators needed to hear from anyone who had travelled through the area around the time Desiree disappeared, particularly anyone who might have seen a young woman walking near the highway.
There were also characteristics that could have helped someone recognize Desiree. Police said she had a particular interest in fragrances such as perfumes and air fresheners and loved plush animals. These seemingly small details became important because someone could conceivably have encountered Desiree without knowing who she was or realizing that she was missing.
Over the years, tips came in and investigators followed up on information, but none provided the breakthrough Desiree’s family desperately needed. As one anniversary became another, the question remained the same: how could a vulnerable young woman disappear so completely despite such an extensive search?
On the tenth anniversary of her disappearance in August 2021, the Alberta RCMP once again appealed to the public for help. This time, investigators released an age-progressed drawing showing what Desiree might look like at approximately 31 years old. RCMP forensic artist Corporal Jean Nault created the image after meeting members of Desiree’s family, including a younger sister whose resemblance to Desiree helped him estimate how her features might have changed over the years.
Desiree’s family also made an emotional appeal. They spoke of a young woman they described as beautiful, special and wonderfully curious, and of the enormous absence her disappearance had left behind. After a decade without her, they continued hoping that someone, somewhere, knew something that could finally bring them answers.
The case continued receiving attention. In 2022, Desiree was among the missing Indigenous women and girls highlighted by the RCMP in a national awareness campaign intended to bring renewed attention to unresolved cases.
Her family was still searching in 2024. A sign erected near Gleichen offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of Desiree. More than a decade had passed, but those who loved her had not stopped looking.
There are several possibilities surrounding Desiree’s disappearance, but very little evidence publicly available to determine which, if any, is correct. She may have wandered farther than she ever had before and encountered terrain that searchers were unable to thoroughly cover. She may have reached Highway 901 and been picked up by someone who believed they were helping her. If that person drove her somewhere outside the search area, it could explain why the enormous search near Siksika failed to locate her.
There is also the possibility that Desiree encountered someone who harmed her. However, there is no publicly confirmed evidence establishing that she was abducted or that another person was responsible for her disappearance. After all these years, it is important to distinguish those possibilities from what investigators actually know.
What is known is heartbreakingly simple. Desiree Oldwoman was at her home on Siksika First Nation on the evening of August 27, 2011. Sometime afterward, she disappeared. Search teams took to the ground, air and water. Dogs and quads were deployed. Investigators followed tips and appealed repeatedly to the public. Years later, an artist created an image of the woman Desiree might have grown to become.
But none of it has answered the question her family has carried since that summer night in 2011:
Where is Desiree Oldwoman?
If you have information on Desiree’s case, please contact any of the following:
Gleichen RCMP: 403-734-3056
Reference Case#: 20111079561
Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/tips
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
Send email to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains at: canadasmissing-disparuscanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Sources: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, MissingKids.ca, Global News, CityNews Calgary, Strathmore Times, Missing Children Society of Canada, and CJWE Southern Alberta.
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