Jennifer Leigh Catcheway
Case Reference: 2012020053
Missing Since: June 19, 2008
Missing From: Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada
Date of Birth: Â June 19, 1990
Age at Disappearance: 18 years
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Indigenous
Jennifer is a member of the Skownan First Nation
Eye Color: Hazel / Green
Hair: Brown, long in length
Height: 170 cms / 5ft 7in
Weight: 75 kgs / 165 lbs
Physical Build: Slender/Thin
Jennifer was last seen wearing: A green and white striped shirt
Notable: Jennifer has a tattoo reading “J.C.” on her left ankle, and a tattoo of the letter “J” on her left hand.
Details: Jennifer’s mother last received a phone call from her on June 19, 2008. The call was later traced back to Grand Rapids, Manitoba, where Jennifer was last seen alive. She confirmed she would be arriving at her parents’ home in Portage la Prairie, an approximately 6-hour drive from Grand Rapids, to celebrate her birthday later that evening for a birthday barbecue with her family but never arrived. Jennifer visited Grand Rapids with her uncle, Charles Parenteau, and a cousin, Shawn Catcheway, and photos from a party in town placed her in the area. She was last seen getting into an unknown truck on the Dakota Tipi First Nation Reservation. Parenteau and Catcheway were arrested in the weeks that followed Jennifer’s disappearance, however both of them were released with no charges. Charles has said that he dropped Jennifer off near the Waterhen junction on Highway 6. No additional charges have been laid against anyone in regards to Jennifer’s disappearance.
Jennifer’s family has been very outspoken about the racism they believe led to a failure to locate her. Jennifer’s mother, Bernice, told sources that when she tried to report Jennifer missing and she was told Jennifer was likely “drunk” and would return home soon. Jennifer’s family has conducted searches of yards and the landfill on the Dakota Tipi First Nation Reservation, but have not turned up any evidence or remains. A new anonymous female witness came forward with information in Jennifer’s case in October of 2015. This witness claimed that she knew exactly where Jennifer was on the night she vanished and named the individuals who were with her. She pointed investigators toward a forested area on the Dakota Tipi First Nation in Manitoba. This area sat directly adjacent to a clearing where a party had been held the night of Jennifer’s disappearance. The woman reported hearing screams coming from those woods on that exact night. Allegedly, the RCMP initially refused to take statement from the witness and told her to contact the specific investigators in charge of Jennifer’s case. After a backlash, law enforcement called the witness back and officially recorded her statement.
Charles Parenteau was murdered on December 27, 2015. It was Parenteau’s death that triggered a whole wave of new community rumors, secrets, and tips. This fresh information convinced Wilfred Catcheway to shift his family’s primary search focus to the land and waterways around Duck Bay in late 2016.
In late October / early November of 2016, after conducting dozens of his own interviews, Jennifer’s father, Wilfred Catcheway, gathered information indicating that Jennifer may have been killed in the remote community of Duck Bay, located roughly 450 KMs (280 miles) northwest of Winnipeg. After the family went public with these leads in mid-October, they received four additional tips reinforcing the theory that Jennifer’s remains were hidden in that area. The Catcheway family began searching the waters and land around Duck Bay themselves using specialized equipment, including an underwater camera fixed to a plastic pole. The family publicly appealed for search volunteers and requested heavy equipment, such as a backhoe, to assist in digging up targeted ground locations. In early November 2016, Wilfred Catcheway successfully convinced authorities to join the effort. The RCMP underwater recovery teams from Winnipeg and Saskatchewan deployed to Duck Bay to dive and search a specific, remote river channel for evidence.
Despite these extensive water and ground search efforts by both law enforcement and volunteers, no remains or physical evidence were recovered during the Duck Bay search. The RCMP continues to investigate Jennifer Catcheway’s disappearance as a homicide, and her family continues to conduct independent searches across Manitoba each year to bring her home.
The Catcheway family delivered emotional, public testimony on October 20, 2017, during the final day of the Winnipeg community hearings for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Despite structural delays and legal friction from inquiry staff trying to restrict them to a private session, Jennifer’s parents, Bernice and Wilfred Catcheway, insisted on a public platform to share their pain and condemn the systemic failures of their case.
Bernice testified that when she first called the police to report Jennifer missing on her 18th birthday, the desk officer dismissively suggested that Jennifer was “probably just out drinking” and advised the family to wait a week. The family revealed that RCMP investigators failed to take statements from core family members in Grand Rapids and Portage la Prairie until a full 30 days after Jennifer vanished and only did so after her parents confronted them. They testified that they had completely stopped relying on the RCMP to investigate their daughter’s disappearance. At the time of their 2017 testimony, they stated they had not heard from a handling officer in years and did not even know the name of the detective assigned to the homicide file. Bernice described the agonizing “emotional roller-coaster” of independently digging through fields, ditches, and landfill sites across Manitoba. She recounted a devastating moment when they unearthed a bone they believed belonged to Jennifer and slept with it on a dresser, only for forensic tests to later prove it was not human.
Jennifer’s parents shared that their surviving children felt like their mother “died” the day Jennifer disappeared, because her life became entirely consumed by the non-stop, self-funded search for her missing daughter.
For years, Bernice and Wilfred personally offered a $10,000 reward for any information regarding Jennifer’s location. In 2020, the Manitoba Métis Federation stepped in to donate an additional $10,000, bringing the total standing reward to $20,000. The general sense in the community is that a wealth of people know what happened to Jennifer, but no one is talking.
📣If you have information on Jennifer’s case, please contact any of the following:
🚨Portage La Prairie RCMP:
📞Telephone: (204) 857-4445 or (204) 986-6250
📧Email: RCMP-MIMPCC-CICPDM-GRC@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Reference Case#: 2008725791
📞Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-TIPS(8477)
🔗Online at: https://www.canadiancrimestoppers.org/submit-a-tip/submit-a-tip
Crime Stoppers provides anonymous tipping
📧Send email to the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains at: canadasmissing-disparuscanada@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
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Sources: Doe Network, Justice For Native People, Canada’s Missing, CBC, National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Missing Kids, Jennifer Catcheway Bring Her Home FB, CTV Winnipeg, Winnipeg Free Press, Huffington Post
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