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Monday, April 29, 2024

Sindy Ruperthouse disappeared 10 years ago. Her family is still waiting for answers #MMIWG

'We just want to know,' says father of missing Algonquin woman

A picture of a woman, smiling at the camera
Sindy Ruperthouse was last seen on April 23, 2014, in the Val-d’Or hospital in northwestern Quebec. (Submitted by Johnny Wylde)

In 10 years, Johnny Wylde has never changed his phone number.

He says he never will.

It's the same one he had on April 23, 2014, the day his daughter, Sindy Ruperthouse, went missing.

Even though a decade has passed, he still keeps the ringer on, the phone glued to his hip.

"She knows what my number is if she's still alive," said Wylde, taking a pause. "I don't know what to think."

All Wylde wants to hear is Ruperthouse's voice on the other end of the line — a woman his family remembers as a caring big sister who loved life and made her parents proud.

He says his family needs closure and that it was not like her to skip town.

Wylde thinks there's only a one per cent chance she's still alive.

Ruperthouse, an Algonquin woman from the Pikogan community in northwestern Quebec, was last seen April 23, 2014, at the hospital in Val-d'Or, Que. The 44-year-old had been injured with multiple broken ribs.

Wylde and his wife, Émilie Ruperthouse Wylde, last spoke to her by phone, when she asked for money to bail her boyfriend out of jail, says Wylde. They had refused.

"Today we think about that," said Wylde.

Her parents allege she was beaten by her boyfriend — who they have since written to, begging for information.

For years, Wylde travelled across Quebec, putting up billboards and conducting searches in forests and cities in the James Bay area, Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa.

Three women look at the camera holding a photo of another woman
Joan Wylde, her mother, Émilie Ruperthouse-Wylde and sister Kathy Ruperthouse want answers to what happened to Sindy Ruperthouse. (Jessica Gélinas/Radio-Canada)

"Every big city [but] I didn't find her," said Wylde.

"The family encouraged me to do that. If I'm still alive, I'm going to do everything."

A few days before the anniversary of her disappearance, Wylde received a call from provincial police who informed him that the $40,000 reward first issued by Sun Youth would be reinstated for anyone who has information that can lead to finding Ruperthouse.

A news release from provincial police says Ruperthouse's case remains the subject of an investigation, and since April 1, 2020, has been under the division of disappearances and unsolved cases.

"Since the start, several searches and verifications have been carried out in an attempt to find her," read the release.

But Wylde says not enough was done to find her.

"We just want to know," he said.

'It's like running out of air,' says sister

Radio-Canada's investigative program Enquête looked into her case, in the process, uncovering a larger story about allegations of assault by police against Indigenous women.

"If I put my energy on the SQ [Sûreté du Québec], I'm gonna get mad all the time," said Wylde.

A couple sits at a table with paperwork in front of them
John Wylde and Emily Ruperthouse Wylde have been searching for their daughter for more than two years. They say police have not done enough to help. (CBC)

"They do what they want to do, and I do what I have to do. I've been waiting for 10 years … and nothing happened."

He says the case has changed investigators five times. No one has ever been charged.

Joan Wylde, Ruperthouse's youngest sister, says they didn't get answers from police.

"The police never told us anything," said Wylde.

She says her sister's disappearance "hurts like it was yesterday."

"We need to know. You can't live like this. It's like running out of air. That's how we feel," said Wylde, speaking with Radio-Canada.

WATCH | Joan Wylde describes sister as 'someone who loved life':

Sindy Ruperthouse's sister still prays for her to come home

A decade after her sister disappeared, Joan Wylde says her family is still trying to heal.

She says finding out what happened will provide the family with closure.

But she fears that her parents, now elderly, won't be around when the truth finally comes to light.

A billboard with a woman's face on it. It says Sindy missing since April 2014.
A billboard, pictured years ago with the photo of Sindy Ruperthouse outside her hometown of Pikogan, Que. (Julia Page/CBC)

"My father doesn't even go into the woods anymore because there's no signal," says Wylde.

She says he's always looking at his cell phone, "afraid he'll miss the call if they ever find Sindy."

"It shakes us so much that we don't even have words, you don't even know how to continue living," said Wylde, her voice quivering.

"I want my sister to come home. That's what I always say. I pray all the time that Sindy returns. It's time."

'There is no mechanism for accountability,' says senator

The family's efforts have had far-reaching consequences, helping to shine a light on policing problems in the Val-d'Or area and, ultimately, prompting the Viens Commission — the provincial inquiry into the way Indigenous people are treated by police and other authorities.

Channelling his grief, in 2018, Johnny Wylde travelled to Montreal to testify at the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to tell his daughter's story. Over the years, he says he's helped search for other missing Indigenous women.

Senator Michèle Audette, one of the five commissioners responsible for the federal inquiry, says cases like Ruperthouse's which have dragged on for years act as a reminder for the need to "shake the system from inside."

Audette, who is Innu from Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, says there is still an absence of data for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, as well as a lack of commitment.

A woman looks into the camera. She is wearing a pendant with a woman wearing a red dress.
Joan Wylde wears a pendant of a woman wearing a red dress, symbolizing Indigenous women and children who have disappeared or were killed. (Jessica Gélinas/Radio-Canada)

"There's always a new face, a new beautiful person on Facebook that we're looking for," said Audette.

"It doesn't stop, it doesn't slow down. My feeling [is] it's not stable. My feeling is it's increasing."

She says it's frustrating not having the same power as some levels of government to enact change in policy and approach.

"I can ask, I can demand, but they're the one with the priorities," said Audette.

"There is no mechanism for accountability."


Support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Immediate emotional assistance and crisis support are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through a national hotline at 1-844-413-6649.

You can also access, through the government of Canada, health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.

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