Family of missing Barrie woman still 'hoping and praying' she's found safe

It's been nearly two months since Autumn Shaganash's family last saw or heard from the 26-year-old and they're now stepping up efforts in the hope she'll be found safely.

Ever since the Barrie, Ont., woman went missing, her family has been chasing down leads, organizing searches and putting up missing person posters. Now, to keep up the momentum, they're hoping to raise $10,000 as a reward to renew interest in her case, with any extra left over going toward hiring a private investigator.

"Imagine if this was your sister, this was your daughter, this was your niece, this was your friend," said Kimberly Moore, Shaganash's cousin.

"It's almost like living in a nightmare ... We just want to wake up."

The family says they're plagued by thoughts of what could have happened to Shaganash, even worrying she may have become a victim of human trafficking when she disappeared in early June. The Barrie Police Service previously told CBC Toronto that human trafficking could be behind the disappearance. And while police say they're actively looking for Shaganash, the family has criticized them for not doing enough.

Peter Leon, a corporate communication coordinator for Barrie police, says Shaganash was officially reported missing on June 12. Since then, he says police have used social media to raise awareness about her disappearance, followed up on leads and conducted searches using their canine unit, but nothing has panned out so far.

"We must respect the fact that this is ongoing," said Leon, adding the force is "leaving no stone unturned."

If things were left solely to police, the family would be "still be waiting with absolutely nothing," said Charlene Moore, Shaganash's aunt.

"All this work was done by family," she said, pointing to the family finding nearby surveillance footage of Shaganash and locating the house of the last person she was with.

Family hoping for surveillance footage

Shaganash was last seen on June 9 leaving her sister's home around 9 p.m., saying she was going to see a friend and would be back later. That same night, Shaganash texted her sister around 11 p.m. that she would be staying out later and would be back in the morning.

She never returned. At 9:30 a.m. the next day, she texted her sister asking to be picked up. Her sister responded just minutes later but the messages wouldn't go through. The family is hoping to find anyone with surveillance footage around Barrie's Sunnydale Park between then and the morning of June 10.

Moore says if police have made efforts to locate Shaganash, they haven't been very forthcoming to the family. "They're not really working too much with us," she said.

Leon said Barrie police have assigned an officer within the investigation to communicate with the family whenever there's an update.

"With every missing person's investigation, it will remain open until we either locate and reunite her with her family or we receive information as a result of the ongoing investigative process that allows us and makes us feel otherwise."

'We will not stop,' says family

Angela Boyer, the team lead for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, trans and two-spirit at the Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, an agency that serves Indigenous communities, said she's been connecting the family with multiple Indigenous organizations and assisting with the search.

She says it's "a common thread" among Indigenous families to feel their cases aren't being taken seriously worked on quickly enough.

That's why it's important police minimize harm by making sure all parties, from frontline police officers to support staff, work together to make sure families receive information when they need it.

"At the end of the day, on the family side ... that's someone that just randomly disappeared," said Boyer. 

"The one thing that this family does have is the unity and love between them. Not everybody has that," said Boyer.

Clarence "Clare" Moore, Shaganash's uncle, says he's taking time off of work to help find her. And while the family doesn't know exactly what happened to her, he says they're determined to bring her home.

"We are still hoping and praying she is found safe and sound," he said. "But it is not the same. Life is not the same."