Prostitution in Canada Forum - A Bravenet.com Forum

Monica

Jun 26, 05 - 8:45 PM

Project Kare

Project Kare has a website with a forum... it really needs the input of active sex workers... most of the people that contribute to the site are "yes" people... yes!! the system works.. yes!! diversion groups are great yes!! let's seize john's car yes!! dna is a small price to pay - get everyone's blood ... well... you get the idea. Log on to Project Kare's site at www.kare.ca - put in your two cents worth and balance things out.

Wendy

Jun 28th, 2005 - 8:53 AM

Re: Project Kare

I visited already, I'll go back later this afternoon.

sashie

Jun 29th, 2005 - 1:41 PM

Re: Project Kare

I found this link on www.kare.ca

This is a great site, thank you.

Marcella

Jul 30th, 2005 - 12:03 AM

Re: Project Kare

Checked out the www.kare.ca forum. Some very interesting stuff. Too bad it attracts all the freaks (I mean ALL THE FREAKS). Mystery Girl has a "goddess" complex (and I don't mean that in a good way. What a pain in the butt it is to jump past stupid postings.

ah well... its still a very good forum. A place to go and vent. A place to go and show support.

Wendy

Oct 26th, 2005 - 12:03 AM

Another missing sex worker in edmonton

EDMONTON - A year before she was last seen on 118th Avenue, Delores Dawn Brower told people she had a plan to get off the streets.

She'd found a man, she said, a friend, who would take her in and give her a rent break.

"I talked to her in late 2003, I had thought she got out, that she got away from this," said JoAnn McCartney, a former police officer and court diversion co-ordinator at the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation. "That happens a lot, where people decide to take someone under their wing."

If there was a plan, it didn't pan out.

At 5:40 a.m. on May 13, 2004, Brower was spotted by Project KARE team members on 118th Avenue and 70th Street.

She had already registered with the RCMP-led task force, sharing details about her family, her history, and her medical, dental and DNA records.

A year later, in May 2005, the Metis woman's family reported her missing.

On Thursday, the RCMP's Project KARE investigator Const. Tamara Bellamy announced that Brower has officially been listed as a missing person.

"People involved in a high-risk lifestyle don't always maintain contact with their family," Bellamy said. "It was not unusual for her to go for a period without them seeing her."

She said the five-month lapse between the family's report and RCMP notifying the public was due to a lengthy investigation.

Foul play is suspected, but Bellamy did not link Brower's case to the work of a serial killer thought to be responsible for several prostitute deaths in the Edmonton area.

Brower's disappearance is the third police have announced this year. Sex trade workers Corrie Renee Ottenbreit and Maggie Lee Burke were listed as missing in January and April.

Brower's friends on 118th Avenue say they called her Spider, and she'd been working on the street for 10 to 15 years. They say she kept to herself and worked alone.

One called her a "great kid."

"She always wanted to get off the street," one woman said.

McCartney said Brower, 33, was using drugs in 2003.

"She was very quiet, very timid, quite depressed most of the time. The last time I talked to her, she was quite depressed and down. Hopelessness is a big thing on the street."

Brower's family could not be reached on Thursday. In a prepared release given to the media, they asked anyone with information to come forward.

"We love Delores and are very concerned that she has been missing for some time," the family said.

When last seen, Brower was wearing a black sweater and black jeans. She weighs approximately 110 pounds and is five-foot-three with long brown hair and brown eyes. She has scars on both forearms.

Bellamy said Project KARE is investigating the disappearances or deaths of 83 Albertans with high-risk lifestyles. Twenty-five of those cases arose from the greater Edmonton area.

In the past 16 years, the bodies of 12 prostitutes have been found around the city.

In June, Project KARE offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the potential serial killer.

The person -- or people -- they're looking for, police say, likely:

- Has a reliable truck, van or sport utility vehicle with high mileage;

- Is comfortable navigating rural areas;

- Possibly participates in outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing or camping;

- Has a past or present connection to areas south of Edmonton such as Leduc, Camrose or New Sarepta, and;

- Periodically cleaned the interior or exterior of the vehicle at unusual times.

So far, Bellamy said, police do not have any suspects.

taudette@thejournal.canwest.com

Wendy

Apr 23rd, 2006 - 11:52 AM

Re: Project Kare

Edmonton -- More than 400 women linked to Edmonton's sex trade have volunteered their DNA to police to spare their families the anguish of uncertainty should they go missing.

And the list keeps growing, says the head of the Prostitution Action and Awareness Foundation of Edmonton. "They're saying, 'If I was murdered I would want my family to know,' " Kate Quinn said.

The foundation works closely with Project Kare, the RCMP-led task force investigating the deaths and disappearances of up to 80 people who led high-risk lifestyles, including sex-trade workers. CP

Wendy

May 17th, 2006 - 10:03 AM

Re: Project Kare

SHERWOOD PARK -- A body, believed to be a female's, was discovered shortly after noon near a farmer's field north of this community, raising fears that another Edmonton-area prostitute has been slain.

Project KARE, the police task force investigating the disappearances and murders of a number of people leading high-risk lifestyles, is involved in the investigation, which is being treated as a homicide.

But RCMP spokesman Wayne Oakes told reporters last night that the preliminary investigation hadn't determined whether the case involves a sex-trade worker or even whether it is in fact a homicide.

However, the location of the grisly find - near Range Road 225 and Township Road 542, east of Highway 21 - "is the same general area where the bodies of several Edmonton-area sex-trade workers have been discovered in recent years," Oakes acknowledged, adding the find will raise concerns for relatives of missing people in high-risk lifestyles.

Other details - including identity, cause of death, the level of decomposition and whether the body was clothed - also weren't released last night.

An autopsy was slated for this afternoon.

A young couple out for a lunch-time walk discovered what they believed to be a human body in a lightly wooded area near a farmer's field, Oakes said. The man and woman called police and investigators have been at the scene ever since.

Mounties were probing missing persons reports and contacting other agencies in a bid to identify the remains, Oakes said.

There was no evidence to link the death to any active or historic homicide investigations, Oakes said.

RCMP cruisers blocked access to the area last night.

The area, just south of Fort Saskatchewan and near Edmonton's eastern city limits, has long been a dumping ground for the bodies of women in the sex trade.

On Oct. 24, 1989, the body of Bernadette Ahenakew, 22, was discovered 2 km north of Highway 16 along Clover Bar Road.

On Jan. 8, 2003, 30-year-old Monique Pitre's corpse was found near Township Road 540 and Range Road 220.

Just four days later, the body of 20-year-old Melissa Munch was found south of Highway 16 on Range Road 220.

Then, on June 11, 2004, Rachel Quinney's body was discovered near Township Road 540 and Range Road 224. The 19-year-old's body had been dumped in a wooded area.

Other bodies have been found farther afield, but in the same general vicinity.

On Sept. 13, 1988. the body of Georgina Flint, 20 was discovered just west of Elk Island National Park.

In Sept. 1, 1997, the remains of Carlayn Aubrey King, 23, were found in a canola field near Strathmore Way in Sherwood Park.

On Oct. 19, 1997, Joyce Ann Hewitt's body was found just within Edmonton's eastern boundary. The 22-year-old's remains were found in some underbrush near 17 Street and 91 Avenue.

Wendy

May 18th, 2006 - 9:47 PM

Re: Project Kare

EDMONTON -- The mother of a murdered prostitute dabbed at her eyes, hugged her son and clutched a tiny bouquet of flowers Thursday at a memorial service to honour more than a dozen women found slain near Edmonton in recent years.

"She was a sweet, giving person,'' said Beverly Innes, the pain of her daughter's loss etched into her face. "She didn't deserve to go this way because she was always trying to help others.''

The body of Theresa Merrie Innes, a 36-year-old mother of two, was found earlier this month in a home in Fort Saskatchewan, a bedroom community northeast of Edmonton.

She was last seen alive last August in High Level, Alta., more than 700 kilometres away from where her body was found May 7.

Thomas George Svekla, 38, is facing second-degree murder charges. He is the first person to be charged by an RCMP-led task force looking into the deaths of dozens of women with so-called "high-risk lifestyles.''

A crowd of more than 100 watched as Delia Quinney, whose daughter Rachel was found dead in a wooded area in 2004, lit three candles atop a podium draped with black cloth. One candle was to pay tribute to Innes, another to recognize the spirit of another body found earlier this week east of Edmonton, and the third to honour all victims of violence.

Delia Quinney sniffled and held back tears as she lit the candles while another woman beat a slow and solemn rhythm beside her on an aboriginal drum.

The body of Kathy King's daughter, Cara, was discovered near the city in 1997.

King called for more resources to help women get off the street and for more public education to dry up consumer demand for the services of prostitutes.

"The young women we remember were victims at many levels,'' said King. "They did not deserve to die, yet there were few resources to help them live.''

She struggled to check her emotions in a moving tribute to the murdered women, who she said were trivialized, sometimes blamed for being victims and denied dignity even in death.

"We are no longer in the ditch or the alley or the trunk of your car. We are not even on the street corner,'' she said.

"We are now present in the sun that shines, the stars that twinkle in the sky . . . Let the memory of our short lives be used for good so that others can enjoy the peace and freedom we were denied.''

Officials with the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton, which organized the memorial, called for more action on violence against women, including seizing the vehicles of men who hire prostitutes, and providing more programs and affordable housing to get women off the streets.

Beverly Innes asked the public not to dismiss the deaths of sex-trade workers.

"They are somebody's daughter and somebody's sister. They're not just prostitutes,'' she said.

Michael Innes, Theresa's brother, paid tribute to the tireless work of investigators but said there are likely other undiscovered bodies out there.

"There are a lot of girls out there that still haven't been found or seen,'' he said.

"Let's not stop just because of a memorial. Let's keep going and find these girls.''

The Project Kare task force is also investigating the discovery of a body east of Edmonton on Tuesday -- an area where the bodies of prostitutes have been dumped before.

In a news release Thursday, RCMP said an autopsy established it was a 38-year-old female and police were working to notify the next of kin.

Police said the woman had not been reported missing and several details, such as how long the body had been in the field, would not be released for the sake of the investigation.

Kate Quinn, executive director of the prostitution foundation, said news of the discovery of another body near Edmonton was stunning.

"It was like a kick in the stomach,'' she said.

"This woman, Theresa's just buried on the Tuesday, had the family memorial, and then on Wednesday the headlines, `Another Body Found.' The violence has to stop, the deaths have to stop.''

Quinn said she was heartened that Project Kare has made an arrest in Innes's slaying, saying perhaps it will provide breaks in other cases, too.

Wendy

May 20th, 2006 - 9:32 AM

Re: Project Kare

Project KARE has another murder case on its hands. The person whose body was found in a field just east of Edmonton this week was a prostitute. The people who knew her are in disbelief.

Friends hugged and comforted each other after learning Bonnie Lynn Jack was the woman found dead earlier this week. Prostitutes on the street knew her as “Bunny”. The RCMP say her real name is Bonnie Lynn Jack, 37. After notifying her family, they confirmed that she had connections to the sex trade in Edmonton and Vancouver. She wasn’t registered with Project KARE, which is now heading the investigation into her death. But police are not yet linking this case to others.

Police say she was never reported missing, and she had contact with her family a couple of months ago. Some of the women on the street say they saw her recently, and they all want this case solved. That includes family members of some of the other prostitutes found murdered.

“I keep thinking about my sister. I want them to find this person who is doing all this,” said Sam Bernard, brother of murdered prostitute Edna Bernard.

“It's crazy. They should find out who is doing this to the women. They don't deserve that,” said Barb Stanley, cousin of murdered prostitute Rachel Quinney. “It's getting scarier.”

Anastasia Kuzyk

Current 22 yrs. and still counting, and not a fraud

Jun 6th, 2006 - 2:15 AM

Re: Project Kare

Rather than put the money into after the fact maybe we should be demanding that they put money and resourses into prevention ideas and projects. I sure the women should have been consulted instead of being sold this creepy project. I am sure the coppers who do this are deeply moved by what is happening to us but Andrew Sorfleet formley of Sex workers' Alliance of Vancouver over two yrs. ago came up with an idea to have a bad date warning system across Canada. Go to BadDates.ca and educate yourselves ladies because Spoc will not.

Wendy

Aug 15th, 2006 - 9:59 PM

Re: Project Kare

Police stopped and checked people in two vehicles yesterday after they were seen driving near a common Strathcona County rendezvous spot for prostitutes and johns.

Strathcona County RCMP Cpl. Peter Nobles said officers checked the vehicles just before 6 a.m. for Project Kare, a task force investigating the murders and disappearances of more than a dozen area prostitutes.

Edmonton cops assisted Mounties in pulling over one of the vehicles - a white Ford pickup truck - on Victoria Trail about 5:50 a.m., city police said.

No arrests were made and no charges were laid as a result of the stops, said Nobles.

Const. Tamara Bellamy, a spokesman for Project Kare, said the vehicle stops were a "routine check" of people spotted in the known rendezvous point, a rural area just north of Sherwood Park.

"Our people in speaking with the girls on the street know it's an area where a lot of johns will take their dates," said Bellamy.

She said information on the vehicles stopped and the people inside would be forwarded to Project Kare, which is hunting for a serial killer believed to be preying on prostitutes in the Edmonton area.

"Every name that comes to us, we do background checks on. Eventually, we'll get a hit. You just never know."

Meanwhile, Bellamy said Project Kare investigators are spending much of their time preparing their case against accused prostitute killer Thomas Svekla.

Svekla, 38, is charged with second-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in the slaying of 36-year-old Theresa Merrie Innes.

Her body was found in a Fort Saskatchewan home May 7. Police allege her remains were brought to Fort Saskatchewan from High Level in a hockey bag.

Svekla's preliminary hearing is set to begin Jan. 8. He has not been charged in any other slayings.

Dene Moore

Feb 20th, 2008 - 4:17 AM

Curtain rises on Alberta prostitute-murder trial

Thomas Svekla's sister couldn't believe anyone would trust her brother with $800 worth of compost worms.

Svekla told her he'd hauled the worms in a hockey bag from northern Alberta to the Edmonton bedroom community of Fort Saskatchewan on behalf of a friend. He asked to store them at her place.

On May 7, 2006, she decided to investigate the bag. According to court records, Svekla's sister and her husband pulled out the bag, carried it into the garage and opened it. When she realized the bag contained something other than worms, she started to hyperventilate - then called police.
In the bag was the body of a naked woman, wrapped in a shower curtain, orange garbage bags and an air mattress. The bundle was held together with more than 50 small-gauge wires.

RCMP arrested Svekla the next day. He was charged with second-degree murder in the death of a woman later identified as Theresa Merrie Innes, a 36-year-old street prostitute, drug addict and mother of two.

"Where's this body you guys find?" Svekla allegedly asked on the way to the police station. "Is it something that happened recently or . . ."

In an affidavit, one officer said he interpreted the comments to mean Svekla knew the location of other bodies.

Eight months after the first charges were laid, Svekla was charged with the second-degree murder of Rachel Elizabeth Quinney, 19. She was an addict, a sex-trade worker and a mother. Long before the discovery of Innes' body, Svekla claimed to have stumbled upon Quinney's mutilated body in a field.

His trial on both murder charges begins today.

Edmonton prostitutes have been disappearing since 1989, but it wasn't until the fall of 2002 that police organized a team to look for patterns among the murders. They sent 10 cases to RCMP criminal profilers, who said five of the prostitutes likely had been murdered by the same person, and that person probably would continue to frequent and kill prostitutes.

The RCMP expanded the investigation and created Project Kare, a joint task force with Edmonton police investigating the cases of 70 dead or missing people, including 13 prostitutes. Police believe the deaths of five sex-trade workers may be linked.

Rachel Quinney was one of the women on that list. The 19-year-old worked Edmonton's 118th Avenue prostitution stroll to pay for her addiction to crack cocaine. She was last seen by a friend on June 8, 2004, when the two shared cocaine near the stroll.

Three days later, Svekla said he found her mutilated body in the bush. He told police he was out driving with another prostitute when he pulled over, got out of his truck, walked into the bush and saw the body. It was about noon, but he waited until after 10 p.m. to report the find because he feared police would suspect him.

They did.

Svekla provided a DNA sample, but he was not a match. He took a polygraph test, denied any involvement in Quinney's death, and was deemed to be truthful. He wasn't charged.

Police have investigated hundreds of suspects for Project Kare. In June 2005, police announced they were seeking a serial killer in the deaths and offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. They have received thousands of tips and filled boxes with evidence.

The only person charged is Svekla, who, on May 8, 2006, came to their attention for the second time.

He had been released from jail just a few days earlier, and had spent some time partying in High Level, Alta., before hitching a ride 780 kilometres south to Edmonton. According to an affidavit filed by a friend, Svekla went to a tire shop in Edmonton where his truck was parked. He removed from it two tires, a rim and a black hockey bag that was so heavy, he had to drag it. He told his friend the bag contained compost and worms.

He stored the bag at his sister's home in Fort Saskatchewan. Days later, he was charged with murder.

During three days of heated interrogation that followed Svekla's arrest, police told him he was also a suspect in the deaths of six other Edmonton-area prostitutes: Quinney, Bernadette Ahenakew, Edna Bernard, Debbie Lake, Monique Pitre, Melissa Munch and Sylvia Ballantyne. All were sex-trade workers and drug addicts who disappeared from Edmonton's prostitution stroll. All were linked by police profilers.

Police also told Svekla he was a suspect in the disappearances of two missing prostitutes, Corrie Ottenbreit and Delores Brower.

The murder charges in the Innes case triggered a review of the Quinney file, and on January 2, 2007, Svekla was charged with second-degree murder in her death.

The case against Svekla is circumstantial. No DNA connects him to either death. He has never confessed.

During police interrogations after his arrest, he denied any responsibility for the deaths of Innes or Quinney. He said he didn't know either woman, that he only tripped over Quinney's body, and that he transported Innes's body because he wanted to give her a decent burial.

	Prostitution in Canada Forum Welcome to the Sex Worker Forum. Here you can post your thoughts and opinions of sex work around the world.
Search For Similar Forums · Return to Website