Thunder Bay Police Service Chief Darcy Fleury says he will not rule out similar searches in the future.David Jackson/The Canadian Press
Thunder Bay has ended its search for human remains at a municipal landfill after no evidence was found in connection with the 2024 death of a First Nations woman, a result that the city’s chief of police says will not rule out similar undertakings in the future.
The landfill search for Deborah Anishinabie, which began last fall, marked the first time that such an operation has been conducted in the Northwestern Ontario city. However, despite nearly two months of scouring through waste material, officers at the site came up empty, Thunder Bay Police Chief Darcy Fleury told The Globe and Mail.
“It was an expensive venture, and it’s unfortunate that we didn’t find the evidence that we were looking for. But we had to do the search,” he said, pointing to the national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“Ultimately, one of the driving pieces for us was bringing closure and peace of mind for the family, that we did everything possible, regardless of the outcome.”
Local authorities sought help from the Ontario Provincial Police and the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, which serves 34 First Nations communities. They also consulted with political representatives and police officials from Manitoba, who had last year been successful in their own landfill searches for the victims of a serial killer targeting First Nations women.
Thunder Bay police begin first-ever landfill search for remains of First Nations woman
By the end – with a team of at least 20 officers on site per day and two full-time managers, alongside other rotating staff – the total cost for the endeavour reached around $700,000, Chief Fleury said.
The chief said he’s grateful to advocates, such as the Ontario Native Women’s Association, for recognizing the service’s effort as being demonstrative of essential changes in a city with a large proportion of Indigenous residents. He is aware of the ramifications in cases where Thunder Bay police have not committed to such efforts, as highlighted by Murray Sinclair, the late senator and chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, who documented systemic racism within the city’s police service.
Asked whether this operation’s outcome will dissuade police from other landfill searches, Chief Fleury said every case is different.
“You have to weigh the circumstances in front of you,” he said. “Is it essential to do it, and are you going to get results? If you have the information that could lead you into a search, then I think you have a responsibility as a service to go ahead and do that, as we did here.”
Landfill searches for human remains have become a controversial issue in recent years, particularly in criminal cases where authorities have declined to conduct such operations. They have led to large protests across the country, with supporters arguing that they are part of humanitarian obligations, while those against them have cited high costs and dangers to safety.
Deborah Anishinabie.Supplied
Ms. Anishinabie, a member of Sandy Lake First Nation, had been living in Thunder Bay to work in health care and pursue higher education. She went missing in December, 2024, at the age of 42.
Her family arranged vigils and spread the word about her disappearance on social media. A few weeks later, police confirmed her death. They had located some of her remains in the city. Investigators believed the rest of Ms. Anishinabie’s remains had been transported to a landfill.
Levi Michael Lawson was arrested in 2024 and has been charged with second-degree murder and indignity to a human body. Now 25, he is waiting for a trial date after a routine preliminary hearing was held earlier this month.
Chief Fleury said he does not expect the result of the landfill search to affect the court proceedings.
“Getting new evidence would’ve definitely, of course, supported us. But we have a very good case,” he said. “The evidence that we do have is very strong.”
The Thunder Bay Solid Waste and Recycling Facility. The total cost for the search reached around $700,000, Chief Fleury said.David Jackson/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Anishinabie’s family and friends declined to be interviewed.
Alvin Fiddler, Grand Chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents 49 First Nations in Northern Ontario, said he has maintained constant contact with Ms. Anishinabie’s relatives in Sandy Lake.
She is survived by her teenaged daughter and siblings. But “overwhelmed by grief,” her father died last January, and her mother died in July, Mr. Fiddler said.
“What the family really wants is for a search to continue in some way possible,” he added. “They are thankful for this search for answers, this search for justice.”
Although Chief Fleury previously told The Globe that additional funding for the search was not required from the Ontario or federal governments, he now hopes to recoup the costs.
“It’d be awesome if the province does come up and give us a hand,” he said.
But in an e-mailed statement, the Solicitor-General of Ontario said the ministry has not yet received a request to cover any costs.
“Generally, expenses of this nature are expected to be managed within a police service’s existing operating budget,” ministry spokesperson Saddam Khussain wrote.
Officials from the federal government declined to comment.
In Manitoba, police had initially refused to conduct landfill searches for the remains of three of four victims after a serial killer was arrested in 2022. The decision caused a national uproar and became the decisive issue of Manitoba’s 2023 provincial election.
2024: Winnipeg police investigation into murders of First Nations women a ‘failure,’ minister says
Eventually, after a months-long trial in 2024, a new government led by Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew spent $18-million with federal assistance to locate two of the victims’ remains in early 2025. A third search is continuing this winter at a Winnipeg landfill.
In a recent interview, Mr. Kinew said it always struck him that families of the victims wanted Manitoba “to set a precedent in other parts of the country to show the respect and the dignity that a missing person and their loved ones deserve.”
Referring to the Thunder Bay search, he added: “I think we’ve set an expectation.”
Logistically, Chief Fleury said Thunder Bay’s operation was different. While Manitoba officials used GPS data from garbage trucks to pinpoint specific search locations at landfills, Chief Fleury said the search in Thunder Bay “didn’t do any pinpointing.” He declined to say why police did not use that method.
Officials simply followed through on evidence that suggested a connection to the Thunder Bay Solid Waste and Recycling Facility, he said.
With research from Stephanie Chambers