Global Issues

Canada – Edmonton

• Since 1975, bodies of at least 30 women, many of them prostitutes, have been found in the Edmonton region. Dozens more are still listed as missing.

• Project KARE, a joint task force between the RCMP and Edmonton police, formed in June 2003 to investigate the deaths of women living high-risk lifestyles. At time of KARE’s formation, there were 83 cases of women who had gone missing in suspicious circumstances. Six met with foul play.

• Thomas Svekla convicted in Edmonton in June 2008 of second-degree murder in the death of sex-trade worker Theresa Innes;  of sexual assault and uttering threats in September 2008 in a case involving another woman; and in March 2009, was found guilty of sexual interference and sexual assault in a 1995 case involving a five-year-old girl.

Source: QMI Agency, Compiled by J. Hainsworth