Manitoba RCMP used their social media accounts July 18 to reveal new information about the 2013 killing of 15-year-old Leah Anderson in Gods Lake Narrows and to appeal for anyone with information about what led to her being found dead on a snowmobile trail two days after leaving her house for the skating rink.
The condition of Anderson’s body when it was discovered Jan. 6, 2013 led to rumours that she had been attacked and killed by a wolf or dogs but RCMP dismissed that speculation when they confirmed they were investigating her death as a homicide.
Anderson was home for the holidays from Frontier Collegiate Institute in Cranberry Portage when she was killed and winter roads into the community were not yet open, meaning her killer was likely in the community when RCMP arrived to investigate a few hours after her body was found.
The RCMP said Tuesday that it had made significant advancements in its investigation, determining that the Anderson's killer was male and that he knew her. They said it was immediately apparent to investigators at the time that she had defended herself against her attacker and that several suspects had been ruled out through investigative techniques including polygraph tests. RCMP have also received voluntary DNA samples from several community members and conducted numerous interviews.
"Police are aggressively following up on the final aspects of the investigation so officers can move forward into a position where an arrest can be made," said a post on the Manitoba RCMP's Facebook page. "The RCMP is asking the community to come together and help bring justice to Leah by providing any new information that could help conclude the investigation."
CBC reported last March that there were rumours Anderson went to a party the night of her death and that when her boyfriend went there he wasn’t allowed in. CBC was also told that a resident of Gods Lake Narrows had told people that he had murdered someone, but he said that he was only kidding and that he and Anderson had had a secret relationship that ended several months before her death. The man also told CBC he had been questioned by RCMP twice and passed a lie detector test.
Leah's mother Sally Anderson and several friends and family walked from Thompson to Winnipeg in August 2015 in memory of Leah, who used to live in Thompson before her father Gilbert Duke was murdered in 2003 when she was six years old. After that, her mother moved with her four children to Winnipeg but struggled with addiction and her children were placed into foster care. Leah and her siblings moved to Gods Lake Narrows when she was 10 years old after her aunt and her aunt’s husband took custody of them.
