Vigil held for Myrna Letandre at Winnipeg rooming house

An emotional vigil was held on Thursday evening to remember Myrna Letandre, whose remains were found at a Winnipeg rooming house last week.

About 20 people shed tears, shared hugs, lit candles and sang songs in Letandre's honour outside the rooming house on Lorne Avenue where her remains were found on May 9.

Letandre, who was from the Pinaymootang First Nation, was 36 years old when she was last seen in downtown Winnipeg on Oct. 5, 2006.

Police are treating her death as a homicide, but no arrests have been made to date.

Letandre will be buried on Pinaymootang First Nation on Saturday.

Those who attended the vigil said they have many unanswered questions about her death.

Letandre's cousin, Barry Anderson, spoke on her family's behalf and asked anyone with information about a missing or murdered woman to come forward.

"There's people out there that have information with regards to these people, and in general, I guess, all missing people," he said. "Come out, speak to local police authorities."

Court documents indicate Letandre knew a man who was recently charged with murdering his wife in British Columbia.

Traigo Andretti, 37, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Jennifer McPherson, whose body was found on B.C.'s Hanson Island.

Andretti and McPherson had lived in Winnipeg, at the same house where Letandre's remains were found.

According to court documents, Letandre told her sister in October 2006, before she went missing, that she was staying with her boyfriend, "Traego," at his Lorne Avenue apartment.

Investigators in Manitoba have not indicated any connections between Andretti and Letandre's death.

Family members told CBC News last week that Letandre's sister had asked police to search the rooming house in 2006, but it was never done.

Anderson said police should follow every lead in a missing person's case.

"Police, you know, they do get at a lot of calls such as this too … but I think every call should be taken seriously," he said.

"Six and half years being underneath a basement floor, you know, for our loved one, it's very difficult."