SIOUX LOOKOUT, ON — Ontario Provincial Police and the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario have started a new investigation into the death of a young woman in the Sioux Lookout area 46 years ago.
The body of Audrey Anderson, 19, was found on October 11, 1972 on the outskirts of town at the side of Drayton Road east of Highway 72.
The Sioux Lookout resident had suffered severe injuries.
OPP Det. Insp. Gilles Depratto says that at the time, the cause of death was ruled accidental, and the result of a motor vehicle collision involving a pickup truck.
"The information...was that she had been travelling with somebody in the vehicle and had jumped out of the vehicle," Depratto said in an interview after visiting Sioux Lookout on Tuesday with Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer.
Now, several decades later, the case has been reactivated as a result of a request from Anderson's survivors.
The family made an approach through the province's Family Information Liaison Unit (FILU), which was created in the wake of the national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
"FILU organized a meeting with Dr. Huyer and myself to meet with the family. We retrieved our [old] files and listened to the issues. Then Dr. Huyer and I both decided we should do more research and basically ask for additional reviews on this case," Depratto explained in an interview with Tbnewswatch.
The coroner's office has changed the official cause of the woman's death from accidental to undetermined, he said, "because of the severity of the injuries that were sustained by Audrey Anderson."
Two males who were in the vehicle the woman had been riding in are still alive.
Depratto said the men are not being re-interviewed "at this point."
The first step OPP have taken is to appeal to the public, "either friends of theirs, family, acquaintances...that may be prepared to provide the police with information as to what may have occurred that night that these two individuals may have told other people which would be different from what they told police at the time."
Depratto said no reward is being offered in the case currently.
He said investigators "have to be optimistic" the request for help will bring new evidence, noting that he has been involved in two recent cases in which public appeals resulted in useful information coming in almost immediately.
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