Family of missing Indigenous woman pushes for answers 1 year on

Family members of an Indigenous woman who went missing in Barrie, Ont., are stepping up measures of their own to try to find her as her disappearance continues past the one-year mark, a relative says.

Kimberly Moore, a cousin of the missing woman, Autumn Shaganash, says family members have hung hundreds of posters in several cities, looked through her phone messages for answers, reached out to organizations for help and hired a private investigator.

"Every day I think about Autumn and where she could be. It's not easy. Mentally, physically, it takes a toll on your whole body," Moore said.

"Either she's still with us today or she's not. Something bad happened with Autumn and no one knows what happened. We are still looking for answers today."

According to the Barrie Police Service, Shaganash, 26, was last seen walking in Barrie on June 10, 2023 between 10 a.m. and 12 noon near Sunnidale Park. She was wearing tan-coloured leggings, slip-on Puma sandals, a black hoodie and carrying a black and tan purse, police said.

Lili Moore, Shaganash's sister, told a news conference earlier this year that Shaganash texted her around 10 a.m., asking to be picked up. But when Lili tried to respond, her texts wouldn't go through.

Shaganash was reported missing two days later.

Now, more than a year on, Barrie police say Shaganash may have been spotted in North Bay in June.

"The sighting showed a woman wearing a black or dark-coloured track suit with the hood pulled up, and a possible white emblem on the lower leg of the pants," police said in the email, adding they continue to check CCTV footage in the area.

'She just vanished into thin air': police

Moore said the family last saw Shaganash on the evening of June 9, when she left her sister's house around 9 p.m., saying she was going to see a friend.

In a news release on June 12, 2024, police said video surveillance from a home in the area captured her walking with a male on June 10, each of them carrying a ski. The male was walking slightly ahead of her as they made their way toward the Barrie waterfront to watch an air show. 

"Autumn never made it; as the friend, who has been interviewed by detectives, states at one point he looked back and Autumn was no longer following him," police said in the release.

"She just vanished into thin air," police added.

Moore said Shaganash was on her phone for an hour the morning she went missing. She wants to know who her cousin was speaking to before the disappeared.

"What can we do to find out who it is that she was on the phone with?"

'Someone's got to know something,' cousin says

Shaganash's family describes her as loving, funny, sweet and trusting — a person who thinks the best about everybody. And they have no plans to stop looking for her.

"I don't want my grandmother to die not seeing her granddaughter again," Moore said. "We've got to find her. Someone's got to know something."

"We're trying to keep Autumn's name out there, and trying to get as many people thinking about Autumn today even though it's been a year," she said. "I'll never give up until we find out what happened."

Jennett Mays, spokesperson for the Barrie Police Service, said the investigation is ongoing.

"They've followed up on every piece of information they've received, which have been numerous," Mays said.

In February, police offered a reward of up to $50,000 for any information that might help locate Shaganash.

Police said Shaganash has been the subject of numerous searches in the past year.

She has also been the subject of a recent electronic billboard and transit bus campaign. In April, police ran ads that ran on billboards and transit buses locally, asking the public to reach out if they had any information.

"Any information that anyone has, no matter how small it may seem, could be something that could be helpful for investigators, who are working on this constantly," Mays said.