By Justine Kelsie

RCMP looking to social media for help in cold cases

Jan 22, 2018 | 1:56 PM

Investigators are hoping the use of social media will help with gathering more information in the deaths of three Alberta women. 

The three cases are not believed to be related and span a period of almost 30 years –from 1983 to 2013. Two of the women went missing in the Hinton area. 

On May 3, 1983, 16-year-old Shelly Ann Bacsu was reported missing to Hinton RCMP when she didn’t return home from a friend’s house. At 11:30 p.m., the family went to the detachment to report the teen missing. Police searched the area and found Bacsu’s belongings near the Athabasca River. Investigators believe the girl was killed.

RCMP were called to investigate another incident near Hinton on August 26, 2006. Seventy-year-old Stephanie Stewart was working at the Athabasca Fire Lookout Tower as an employee of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. According to an RCMP release, colleagues became worried when she didn’t call that summer morning to do a weather check. RCMP were called to Stewart’s cabin with evidence leading investigators to believe she was murdered. 

A third Vegreville woman was reported missing on November 30, 2013, after she did not contact a friend for a few days. Police conducted several searches, but there was no sign of 44-year-old Deanna MacNeil. Police believe she was the victim of a homicide.

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All three of the bodies have not been found by police, but RCMP’s “K” Division Historical Homicide Unit believes that new information is still out there.

“In each of these three cases, we know that there are people out there who have knowledge of what happened to Shelly Ann, Deanna, and Stephanie. We want to hear from those people, whether it be through Crime Stoppers, through their local detachment or through our own social media channels,” said S/Sgt. Jason Zazulak. 

Zazulak was at a press conference in Edmonton early afternoon on January 22, 2018. 

“Just based on the evidence that has been gathered individually in the cases. There is no evidence to suggest that a single person or persons would be responsible for all three.”

In the Stewart case, Cpl. Kerry Shima of HHU and lead investigator will be accepting new information with his Twitter account. On top of that, Shima will be tweeting about Stewart’s case and topics related to unsolved murders. 

“I think, in general, these crimes were committeed by people and those people, in our experience, do share. It is unique circumstances that a person who commits a crime as serious and heinous as this won’t share some information about that. There may have been witnesses, who at the time, didn’t know what they were hearing or the significance of what they were seeing,” said Zazulak.

RCMP Historical Homicide Unit investigating deaths of three women: https://t.co/rq5Rgs1FKg pic.twitter.com/IcpxRZd8jh

— RCMP Alberta (@RCMPAlberta) January 22, 2018

Hinton is located on Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie.