Shannon Alexander

This is a better photo of Shannon


http://www.findmaisyandshannon.com/

Missing

Maisy Marie Odjick
Age: 16
DOB: 1991/11/06
Last seen in the Maniwaki Area
She is believed to be with her friend Shannon who has also been missing since September 5, 2008.
Height: 6 feet
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Dark
Scars/Visible makings: She has a pierced left nostril and two piercing her bottom lip
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Shannon or Maisy please contact the local Police at :
SQ 819-310-4141 or the KZPD at 819-449-6000.

SHANNON ALEXANDER
Age:17
DOB: 1991/03/29
Last seen in the Maniwaki Area
She is believed to be with her friend Maisy who has also been missing since Saturday, September 5, 2008.
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown/ Black (short similar to the picture above)
Scars/Visible makings: Acne and Her ears are pierced. She wears a silver necklace with a feather on it. She also has a scar on her left knee.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Shannon or Maisey please contact the local Police at :
SQ 819-310-4141 or the KZPD at 819-449-6000.

April 23, 2009, 10:13:26 PM »
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Mother+renews+plea+help+find+missing+girls/1527465/story.html

OTTAWA — Laurie Odjick, mother of one of two teen girls missing from the Maniwaki area for almost 8 months, made a renewed plea for help Thursday while announcing that a second co-ordinated search for the girls will take place May 2.

“I am making a plea for anyone to come down to help us with the search,” Odjick said, struggling through tears, at a press conference at a downtown hotel.

Laurie’s daughter Maisy, and her friend Shannon Alexander, were last seen Sept. 5, when Shannon’s father, Brian Alexander, left them together at his Koko Street home — which borders the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation — while he took a bus to Ottawa to help his son paint his apartment.

When Alexander returned the following day, there was no sign of Maisy or Shannon, but their wallets, IDs and clothing were all left behind. Police have said there was no sign of a break-in. When they went missing, Maisy was 16 and Shannon 17, but they’ve both since had birthdays.

The missing persons files are being jointly investigated by the Kitigan Zibi Police Department and the Sûreté du Québec, because Maisy lived on-reserve and Shannon lived off.

A $10,000 reward — made up of donations from friends and supportive organizations — is being offered by the families for any information that leads to Maisy’s and Shannon’s safe return.

For the first few months of the investigation, the KZPD exclusively handled Maisy’s file while the SQ had Shannon’s, but the two police forces have since combined both files.

Odjick has argued that since the girls went missing together, their cases should have been combined from the beginning, and she has criticized the SQ for using the jurisdictional challenges of the case as an excuse for what she calls an inadequate investigation.

Although the two police departments say they are now working closely together, last month the SQ said that while investigators were still technically considering all possibilities, they had reason to believe the girls ran away. The Kitigan Zibi police, on the other hand, said they had no evidence to indicate one way or another what happened to the girls.

A spokesman for the SQ refused to say what evidence was leading them to believe the girls ran away, saying the information was confidential since it is part of an ongoing investigation.

The investigating officer could not be reached for comment Thursday, but a spokesman said there has been no change in the case.

Odjick said she has no idea what evidence the SQ has, but she has repeatedly said it wouldn’t make sense for her daughter to run away without taking her purse and clothes.

“All they had were the clothes on their backs,” she said Thursday.

Odjick accuses both police departments of assuming Maisy and Shannon ran away from the beginning, and, as a result, never undertook a proper investigation.

The police departments have denied this, saying the files are a priority and the lack of developments in the case is not an indication of investigators’ efforts.

“I can understand the families’ frustrations,” Kitigan Zibi Police Chief Gordon McGregor said last month. “We share the same frustrations. But we’re not getting any information that’s really conclusive.”

At Thursday’s press conference, Odjick was joined by Maisy’s aunt, Maria Jacko, as well as Ellen Gabriel, president of Quebec Native Women Inc., and Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, president of the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families’ Association. Kitigan Zibi Band Chief Gilbert Whiteduck and a representative from Amnesty International were also in attendance, but no representatives of the KZPD, the SQ or Shannon’s family attended.

At the press conference, Odjick announced that a large-scale ground search of the Kitigan Zibi area will be conducted on May 2, with the help of the volunteer non-profit group, Search and Rescue Global 1 and the Ottawa Valley Search and Rescue Dog Association.

A previous large-scale search, also organized by the Odjick family and led by Search and Rescue Global 1, was organized in the first week of December; but knee-deep snow in most parts of the heavily wooded reserve made finding any evidence of the teens’ whereabouts almost impossible.

Though she had to fight back tears whenever she spoke, Odjick said she would not stop searching for her daughter and Shannon, and would continue to demand answers from police.

“I’m not going to stop fighting until I hear her voice.”

According to research by the Native Women’s Association of Canada and Amnesty International, more than 500 aboriginal women have disappeared or been murdered in the last 20 years. If that same rate of disappearances and murders was applied to the general female population in Canada, it would be more than 16,000.

bkennedy@thecitizen.canwest.com

Information on how to join the search:

Date: Saturday, May 2

Time: A bus will leave Ottawa at 7 a.m. from Amnesty International’s office at 312 Laurier

Location: Starting point for all volunteers will be the Kitigan Zibi Community Hall on Fafard Street

Amnesty International is donating a bus to transport volunteers from the Ottawa area who wish to join the search. To reserve a seat on the bus, RSVP to Sylvia at trublewithnormal@gmail.com. For more information about the search and directions to the Kitigan Zibi First Nation visit www.findmaisyandshannon.com or e-mail cbenjamin@amnesty.ca.

- Shannon Alexander is five-foot-nine, 145 pounds, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. She has acne and pierced ears, often wears a silver necklace with a feather on it, and has a scar on her left knee.

- Maisy Odjick is six feet tall, 125 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. She has two piercings in her bottom lip and one in her left nostril, and scars on top of her right eyebrow and left forearm.

Shannon and Maisy are believed to be together. If you have any information about their whereabouts, call the Sûreté du Québec at 819-310-4141 or the Kitigan Zibi Police Department at 819-449-6000. There is a $10,000 reward for information that leads to their safe return.

Missing Quebec girls sought in Ontario

Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander disappeared without a trace a year ago. (Courtesy of Odjick and Alexander families)The investigation into the disappearance of two teenage girls from Maniwaki, Que., a year ago is now focused in Ontario, police say.

That's because most of the possible sightings of Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander in the past year have been in Ontario, reported the Ontario Provincial Police, the Quebec provincial police and the Kitigan Zibi police at a joint news conference Thursday in Ottawa.

Odjick was 16 and Alexander was 17 when they were last seen at a bus stop in Maniwaki, about 145 kilometres north of Ottawa, on Sept. 6, 2008. Odjick lived on the Kitigan Zibi Anishnibeg First Nation reserve, while Alexander lived in Maniwaki, just off the reserve.

In the past year, the OPP have followed up on tips and possible sightings from Ottawa to Saugeen Shores on Lake Huron in Western Ontario, said Det.-Insp. Chris Gilipin. She added that the OPP have added the two girls to their provincial missing persons web page.

Most of the possible sightings of Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander in the past year have been in Ontario, reported the Ontario Provincial Police, the Quebec provincial police and the Kitigan Zibi police at a joint news conference. (CBC)Capt. Jacques Piché of the Sûreté du Québec said police are investigating under the assumption that the girls are still alive.

"We're hoping that they're still alive, we have no information otherwise," he said.

On Thursday, police reported that most tips about the girls came in during the first three months after their disappearance in 2008.

"One of my biggest goals by being here today is to ensure that these girls' faces get back into the public view and the public eye," said Kitigan Zibi chief of police Gordon MacGregor. "Maybe we can incite some sort of information flow again as we did earlier."

Families not told of conference
Laurie Odjick, mother of Maisy Odjick, said police had not told the girls' families about the news conference, but she attended after hearing about it from a CBC reporter.

Laurie Odjick, mother of Maisy Odjick, said she hasn't heard from police in about eight months. (CBC)"Of course, I want their [the girls'] pictures all over," she told reporters afterwards, but she added that she hadn't heard from investigators for around eight months. "So for them, saying they've been collaborating with the families — they haven't been talking to me."

Odjick did not appear to have much faith that the possible sightings of the girls would help find them.

"When I come to Ottawa myself, I see Maisy on every corner," she said. "I think I see her. I do a double take."

She urged members of the public to follow anyone who looks like Maisy or Shannon and give the police a specific location.

"If it was your child, I would think you'd want that to happen also."

Odjick has long expressed frustration with the way the investigation has been handled by police.

At the news conference, Odjick asked MacGregor why the girls' files were originally separated, one with the Kitigan Zibi police and the other with the Quebec provincial police. MacGregor said that was just to get the ball rolling and did not affect work on the case, which investigators realized over time was "a bigger situation" than they thought.

Odjick said she thinks she knows why the investigation was slower and less thorough than she expected.

"I think it was because they were labelled as runaways from the beginning that a lot of things didn't go right."

But she added that shortly after Maisy and Shannon disappeared, Brandon Crisp, 15, ran away near Barrie, Ont. He was found dead three weeks later after a massive search and widespread media attention that Odjick feels contrasted with Maisy and Shannon's case.

"You just see the amount of support that family got and you know what? We didn't get none of that."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/09/03/ottawa-missing-girls-shannon-odjick.html#socialcomments