April 30 marked the start of the 11th annual Missing Persons Week, and Saskatchewan RCMP honouring the thousands of people who go missing in the province each year by sharing the stories behind the people who go missing and the investigations that return them home. 

The theme for this year’s commemorative event is ‘Stories Not Statistics’ and focuses on the fact that behind every missing person report is an individual with their own unique story and set of circumstances. 

“From government agencies to law enforcement, to the families of that go missing, we get together and we hear the stories and the difficulties the families go through,” said Constable Brendan Stanford, Missing Persons Coordinator for “F” Division and the RCMP. 

When dealing with missing persons cases the RCMP seeks to gain as much information as possible. A lot of that information comes down to numbers and data, but Missing Persons Week serves as a reminder that at the core of every investigation is an individual. 

“We also have to remember, and we wanted to remind everybody, that when we do see these numbers that there’s also faces, and there’s stories to each one of those numbers,” said Stanford. 

“We remind people that they’re not just the numbers. They are mothers, they are fathers, they are brothers, sisters, daughters, sons. At the end of the day, it’s bringing those people home to their loved ones with answers of what had happened, and helping them bring closure or bring happiness, and if required, we can bring justice to the situation.” 

In 2023, 2,533 individuals were reported missing to detachments in Saskatchewan RCMP jurisdiction.  

Of those reported missing 1,150 were youth, and 1,000 of the 2,533 were indigenous, split between 550 male and 450 female.  

To date, Saskatchewan has 143 individuals missing long term, with that list going back nearly 60 years, to view the full list visit www.sacp.ca.  

Any piece of information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can be what leads investigators to finding the answers they need to locate a missing person. If you think you have information that may assist investigators, report it to your local police or submit it anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or www.saskcrimestoppers.com