Manitoba Metis Federation offering $10K to help find Jennifer Catcheway
Catcheway went missing on her 18th birthday in June 2008
For 12 years, Bernice and Wilfred Catcheway have combed through forests, swamps, dumpyards, lakes, islands, and everywhere in between, hoping to find their daughter Jennifer.
"No matter the storms and no matter the heat, we would go out," Bernice said.
"We've never given up and we'll never give up."
Their daughter went missing on June 19, 2008, her 18th birthday.
The Manitoba Metis Federation want to help the Catcheway family find her, and on Thursday, announced they would be donating $10,000 to double the family's award that they've offered for years for information that could help find her.
The MMF will also help pay for new posters and other costs the family incurs in their search for Jennifer.
"So if that person is out there listening, imagine just for a fraction of a second if that was your family going through this," said MMF president Dave Chartrand, during a news conference.
"Twelve years of pain, twelve years of going to bed at night wondering if the morning is going to come where a hint is finally there or a clue and you're going to find your baby."
Bernice Catcheway last spoke to her daughter on the phone on the morning of her birthday as she was on her way home to Portage la Prairie, excitedly reminding her mom of the big day. But she never showed up for her birthday party.
Photographs last place her at a house party in Grand Rapids, Man. in June 2008 — more than 400 kilometres north of her family's home in Portage la Prairie.
Jennifer was seen getting into a truck and reportedly dropped off along rural Highway 6, the family has previously said.
RCMP later ruled the case a homicide, but her remains have never been found.
Parents describe heart-wrenching search
Through tears, Bernice described the grueling lengths she and her husband have gone on to try to find their daughter, calling it a nightmare.
They've even paid to have three garbage dumps excavated.
"It's so heart-wrenching and it's so hard, when that bucket goes down, into the dump, and you're shaking it out to see if Jennifer's there," she said.
"It sounds morbid and it sounds gruesome, looking through a dump for your child, but that's what it is. You'd never imagine. What if that was your daughter?"
In the last two weeks, she said she and her husband found a piece of blue tarp buried under a huge pile of dirt and leaves. They began frantically digging it up, thinking it might be Jennifer.
But, it wasn't.
"I was hoping this is Jenn. I just want to bring her home," Bernice said.
Still, Bernice is confident that someone must know someone about what happened to their daughter.
"Somebody knows where Jennifer is. Jennifer didn't just disappear. Somebody took her. Somebody stole her from us."
