Chris's Crime Forum

Chris
postedTue Mar 21, 2006


It is so sad Tamra Keepness has been missing since July of 2004 and not one clue has been found to her whereabouts.Somebody out there knows something,seen something.I hope one day soon that person comes forward so there can be closure to this case.

Chris
posted

Tue Apr 25

A timeline from CBC.

July 5, 2004:
Tamra is last seen going to bed Monday night.

8:30 p.m. Dean McArthur leaves after an argument with Lorena Keepness. McArthur runs into Russell Sheepskin, they start drinking, sometime during that period. They return briefly to drop off a can of formula for McArthur's daughter, an eight-month-old girl. Then they go to the bar.

11 p.m. Lorena puts the kids to bed and leaves to visit a friend's townhouse. Eleven-year-old Summer Keepness is left in charge. There are no adults in the house.

Midnight. Lorena Keepness drops in at the house briefly to check on the kids. When she gets back to friend's townhouse, calls Summer with the phone number.

July 6, 2004:
3 a.m. Russell Sheepskin comes into the bedroom. He's made himself a plate of spaghetti. He can't remember when he got in. He's the only adult in the house. He says he saw Tamra on the couch. Around this time, Dean McArthur returns to check on the kids, allegedly beats up Sheepskin on the porch (he's charged only, not convicted) and leaves. Sheepskin leaves to get stitched up at the hospital and never enters the house again.

3;15 or 3:30 a.m. Lorena Keepness returns, climbs through the window, and falls asleep on the couch. She remains in the house from then until Tamra is reported missing.

Between 3 a.m. and 5 or 5:30 a.m. Dean McArthur claims he's wandering around downtown in a drunken haze looking for his aunt's house. He gets there about 5 or 5:30 and crashes on the couch. He doesn't return home until late the next evening, many hours after Tamra is reported missing.

11:30 a.m. Tamra's family calls police to report her missing.

July 8, 2004:
Police string tape around the house where Tamra lives with her mother and five siblings. Officers remove various items from the home as evidence. Police say there are no signs of struggle or forced entry at the home. More than 20 officers and 30 search-and-rescue volunteers, as well as family and friends, have been searching Regina's streets and back alleys.
» CBC STORY: Regina police search for 5-year-old girl

July 9, 2004:
Tamra's mother, Lorena Keepness, accuses Regina police of delaying their search for her daughter while they investigated the family. Regina police put another 50 officers on the search and expand the search beyond the nine-block area around Tamra's home.
» CBC STORY: Mother accuses Regina police of delays in search for missing daughter

July 10, 2004:
Police expand the search for Tamra to include more than 100 blocks east of Regina's downtown core. Cadets from the RCMP training academy join the search.
» CBC STORY: Police continue search for missing Regina girl

July 11, 2004:
The search is expanded to include the woods and meadows on the city's outskirts. Police confirm that the fruitless search of Wascana Creek was undertaken because of visions from aboriginal elders.
» CBC STORY: Regina girl still missing after six days

July 12, 2004:
Regina police call off the official search for Tamra.

July 13, 2004:
Regina police offer a $25,000 reward to anyone providing leads to Tamra's location. But Regina police Chief Cal Johnston says any hope of finding Tamra alive diminishes each day. Police say the search for Tamra will resume if they receive more information, but they've run out of places to look for now.
» CBC STORY: Police offer $25,000 to help find Tamra

July 14, 2004:
Regina police begin to investigate the family of Tamra Jewel Keepness. They say there were unexplained comings and goings on the night she disappeared. Tamra's stepfather, Dean McArthur, says Tamra's mother was not home on the right Tamra disappeared, and the family has become "key targets" of the investigation. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations says First Nations volunteers will continue the search for Tamra.
» CBC STORY: Regina police to refocus on Keepness family

July 15, 2004:
Saskatchewan becomes the last Canadian province to implement an Amber Alert system. Police say the system would not have helped Tamra. To issue an Amber Alert, police must have evidence the child has been abducted, and a description or licence plate number of the suspected kidnapper.
» CBC STORY: Saskatchewan launches Amber Alert system


July 19, 2004:
Police provide a description of two vehicles they believe could help the case: an orange 1973 Volkswagen van and a red and silver GMC pickup truck.

The stepfather of Tamra Keepness, Dean McArthur, is charged with assault causing bodily harm after an incident on the night Tamra disappeared. Police say the victim of the alleged assault was a 33-year-old man who received stitches over his eye.
» CBC STORY: Missing Regina girl's stepdad charged in assault

July 21, 2004:
Officials from Saskatchewan's Child Protection Branch remove the five remaining children living in Tamra's home. No reason is given for the removal.
» CBC STORY: Children removed from home of missing Regina girl

July 23, 2004:
Dean McArthur, stepfather of Tamra Keepness, is granted bail after being charged with assault. McArthur says the charge has nothing to do with Tamra's disappearance.
» CBC STORY: Stepfather of missing Regina girl granted bail

July 31, 2004:
Police begin a search of a rural area northeast of Regina, including a provincial park and an aboriginal reserve, after receiving reports of strangers walking through a field in the area asking for directions.
» CBC STORY: Search for Tamra moves out of Regina

Aug. 1, 2004:
After a two-day search, Regina police decide to stop looking for Tamra in the Pasqua aboriginal reserve. Aboriginal volunteers say they'll continue to hunt the six-square-kilometre area, using visions from the community's elders and an American medicine man for guidance.
» CBC STORY: Police stop searching Pasqua reserve for Tamra

Aug. 4, 2004:
Lonechild says the six Keepness children were under the care of provincial child protection officials until shortly before Tamra's disappearance. Lonechild says the province may not have given enough support to the family when the children were returned.
» CBC STORY: Child welfare system failed Tamra: native leader

Aug. 5, 2004:
Tamra's mother, Lorena Keepness, says Guy Lonechild, vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, was mistaken when he said that her children were taken by child protection workers in the weeks before Tamra's disappearance. She says that over the past several years, her children have always been in the custody of either her or their father.
» CBC STORY: Tamra's mom denies children taken by social workers

Aug. 10, 2004:
Russell Sheepskin, who was staying in Tamra's home the night she disappeared, says he saw her sleeping on the couch at 3 a.m., four hours after her mother last reported seeing her. He says he was drinking with Tamra's stepfather, Dean McArthur, that evening, blacked out and woke up in his basement bedroom around 3 a.m. He says there were no other adults in the house and he checked on the six children, including Tamra. Sheepskin alleges McArthur later came home and attacked him on the porch. McArthur has been charged with assault, but the allegation has not been proven in court.
» CBC STORY: Man claims to have seen Tamra 4 hours after last sighting

Aug. 11, 2004:
Tamra's biological father, Troy Keepness, is charged with assault with a weapon for allegedly hitting her stepfather, Dean McArthur, with a baseball bat. McArthur says he wasn't hit and didn't ask for charges to be laid. "It's another misunderstanding," he says.
» CBC STORY: Tamra's father charged with assaulting her stepfather

Aug. 20, 2004:
In an interview with CBC News, Tamra's stepfather Dean McArthur says he fears for his safety because police and people in Regina believe he played a role in her disappearance. "That's what I'm scared of – people thinking that I'm guilty," he says. McArthur says he didn't enter the house when he visited, but instead he staggered, extremely drunk, to his aunt's house to sleep on her couch.
» CBC STORY: Tamra's stepfather: 'I would never hurt her'

Sept. 7, 2004:
New information prompts about 30 police and civilian volunteers to search the Muscowpetung First Nation, 65 kilometres northeast of Regina. The area was searched before after the burned-out remains of a van were found there.
» CBC STORY: Police back at reserve in hunt for Tamra

Sept. 9, 2004:
Walter William Obey, a 31-year-old man from the Muscowpetung reserve, is charged with stealing a van 10 blocks away from Tamra Keepness's home the night she vanished. Police say they are investigating whether the theft is connected to Tamra's disappearance.
» CBC STORY: Man charged with stealing van near Tamra's home

Sept. 11, 2004:
Saskatchewan police call off their search of the Muscowpetung First Nation reserve.
» CBC STORY: Still no trace of Tamra

July 5, 2005:
Regina residents walk through Tamra's neighbourhood to mark the anniversary of her disappearance. In the past year, police have followed up on over 1,500 tips and interviewed more than 500 people. Hundreds of police and volunteer searchers have combed the city and surrounding area, but they have come up empty. Tamra’s mother, Lorena Keepness, believes her daughter was abducted and is still alive.
» CBC STORY: 1 year later, the mystery of Tamra Keepness remains unsolved

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/keepness_tamra/

Chris
posted may 06, 2006


Native leaders support paring down of Keepness force
Last Updated Apr 28 2006 09:14 AM CDT
CBC News
Two prominent members of the province's aboriginal community said Thursday they back a police decision to scale down the search for Tamra Keepness.

Vice-chief Guy Lonechild of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, and Shelley Lavalle, the only aboriginal member of the Regina Board of Police Commissioners, said they are comfortable with the decision.

Lonechild says he has "full confidence" that Regina police Chief Cal Johnston will make sure all leads that could produce a break in the case will be properly investigated.

On Wednesday, Johnston said investigators still don't have enough information to lay any charges.

http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/sask-tamra20060428.html

Chris
posted May 06, 2006


Tamra's Mom Returns to Court
posted May 1st, 2006

Another appearance in court for the mother of missing Regina girl Tamra Keepness.
But this time it has not led to jail.

Lorena Keepness was charged and pled to guilty to causing a public disturbance on the front lawn of a home just north of Taylor Field in March.

Keepness was put on a year's probation and told to stay out of trouble.

She informed court she was on the wait list for Pine Lodge Treatment Centre in the hopes of overcoming her substance abuse.

http://snipurl.com/q3u1

Chris
posted may 24, 2006

Dean McArthur, a man the public knows as the stepfather of a missing little girl, made an impassioned plea for a reduced jail sentence Thursday at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

McArthur 's partner is the mother of Tamra Keepness, who was five years old in July 2004 when she vanished from her Regina home. Her disappearance sparked the largest search in the province's history.

In January, McArthur received a nine-month sentence for assault causing bodily harm for an attack on Russell Sheepskin on the same night Tamra disappeared.

The incident happened at McArthur's Regina home in the middle of the night when McArthur was drunk and Sheepskin, his roommate and Tamra's occasional babysitter, was sitting on the porch.

The two men argued, then McArthur punched Sheepskin and stomped on his head. Both men said later the altercation had nothing to do with the child's disappearance.

On Thursday, McArthur told the court his sentence was too harsh because his side of the story had not been heard.

McArthur said his attack on Sheepskin was provoked because Sheepskin threw a marijuana cigarette in his face.

He also said he received blows to his head and chest but he did not tell his lawyer that because he didn't trust anyone.

He went on to say police had questioned him many times about Tamra's disappearance, even telling him he was the main suspect.

McArthur said he's now trying to change his life and get his children back.

The Court of Appeal said it could not retry the case.

It said the sentence was fit and dismissed McArthur's appeal. McArthur is set to be released from jail in July.

http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/mcarthur060511.html

Chris
posted June 10 2007



Tamra's AMW page

http://www.amw.com/missing_children/brief.cfm?id=27494

Still seeking Tamra
Veronica Rhodes, Leader-Post
Published: Saturday, July 05, 2008
Four years after a young Regina girl seemingly disappeared into the night, efforts to find her remain very evident.

Tamra Jewel Keepness was just five years old when she was seen heading to bed on July 5, 2004. The following morning, the young girl could not be found in or around her family's Core area home, and she was reported missing to the Regina Police Service.

An unprecedented search conducted by police, Search and Rescue volunteers, family, friends, and community members resulted in the streets, back alleys, parks, empty lots and outlying areas of Regina being scoured. Subsequent efforts led by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) and police-initiated searches of two Regina-area First Nations were unsuccessful.
To date, Keepness has not been found. No arrests have been made in connection with her disappearance.

However, the community's resolve to find her has endured.

File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council vice-chair Myke Agecoutay said Keepness' disappearance brought together several First Nations and non-First Nations organizations, which have since formed relationships for different initiatives.

"This beautiful little girl united an entire city as well as different communities. Whether she knows it or not, she certainly brought this community together and we hope that in the future, we're able to solve exactly what happened that night," said Agecoutay.

The case remains an active file for the Regina police, which recently announced the creation of a new database that will include every piece of information pertaining to the investigation.

A six-person investigative team will sift through and correlate the information to be entered into the database, once again providing the opportunity to review the entire case file.

"You can imagine what the volume of this file might be with 1,500 and some odd follow-up reports, 2,000 people linked to the file, 1,000 plus tips. It is pretty voluminous," explained Deputy Chief Bob Morin, adding the database will provide an efficient way to search the file's contents.

Morin said the police service is still "very hopeful" it will be able to locate Keepness and reach a long-awaited conclusion to the investigation, which has been one of the largest in the history of the Regina police.

"We're closer today than we were four years ago. We continue to work the file. As in all major investigations, they're time-consuming and there is a lot of information to go through. We move forward. We're farther ahead in the investigation than we were," said Morin.

The FSIN and the Saskatchewan First Nations' Women's Commission are to host a barbecue today at 1 p.m. to mark the anniversary of Keepness' disappearance.

The event will be held at the Core Community Park at 11th Avenue and Toronto Street and is open to the public.

The Board of Police Commissioners is continuing to offer a $25,000 reward for any information that would lead to the discovery of her whereabouts.

Anyone with information pertaining to Keepness' disappearance is asked to contact the Regina police at 777-6500, through its Web site (www.reginapolice.ca) or by calling Crime Stoppers at 545-8477.

link

Girl still missing, five years on

Fifth anniversary of Tamra Keepness' disappearance marked
It was five years ago today that police received a call that five-year-old Tamra Jewel Keepness was missing from her Regina home. Despite extensive searches conducted by police, family, friends, community groups and concerned citizens, she has never been found.

On Sunday, family, friends, community members and members of the Regina Police Service attended a remembrance barbecue hosted by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) at Regina's Core Community Park, just blocks from where Tamra went missing.

In attendance was Tamra's great aunt, Ellen Keewatin. Looking at the crowd assembled at the park, some of whom greeted her with warm hugs, Keewatin said she is overwhelmed by the community's continued caring.

"When we were surrounded at the beginning (of the search) there (in 2004), you could just feel the people caring, coming up to hug us," she said, clearly emotional. "Oftentimes, the Native community and the white community are divided, but in this instance they are not. There's no lines there, no barriers, and that's the way it should be all the time."

She also extended thanks to the FSIN for its support, including through hosting the event that again brings awareness to Tamra's story.

It's that awareness that Regina police Chief Troy Hagen, also in attendance, hopes may one day bring answers.

"Any publicity that's associated obviously to her disappearance heightens awareness in the community, and we certainly remain hopeful that we'll be able to find her," he said. "We need information. We need someone to come forward. We've stated publicly several times in the past that we do believe there are certain persons that do have information that would be critical to solving this case and resolving it and hopefully finding her."

Keewatin said she never thought that, five years later, there would still be no sign of Tamra. She urged anyone with information, including anyone who might have information of a psychic nature, to come forward.

"We need to find this little girl," she said. "Somebody has the answers and they have to do the right thing. We pray that they do the right thing and phone the police or contact whoever they need to contact because that little girl needs to be found. She's a baby. In my eyes, she's still a baby."

As time moves on and the family fails to find answers, Keewatin admitted she sometimes feels like she's losing hope.

"It's fading but you still are left to wonder where she is, like if she's being fed, if she's being treated right," she said, choking up with emotion. "Is she being sexually abused, is she dead? Where is she? Where is she?
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Girl ... story.html