11/06/2025
Tell us where she is.......please 💔
'I wish I could hear her laugh': Missing Barrie woman's family marks two years....Autumn Shaganash's grieving family continues public campaign to find answers and bring her home; she was last seen June 10, 2023 near Sunnidale Park🙏
The family of a missing Indigenous woman marked a grim milestone today in Barrie — two years since Autumn Shaganash disappeared without a trace in the summer of 2023.
Members of the Barrie Police Service were also on hand for Tuesday's news conference at Sunnidale Park to mark the sombre date, held nearly to the minute of her last known time and location two years ago.
Shaganash, who was 26 years old at the time of her disappearance, was last seen in the city park before she vanished on June 10, 2023.
Her last known location was captured on a home-surveillance video near Anne Street, close to Sunnidale Park, on June 10 around the noon hour.
“We know that Autumn is out there somewhere, and that one day soon she will return home to us,” said Shaganash's sister, Lili-Anne Moore, as she read out a prepared statement to members of the media gathered in the park.
“We miss you so much,” she said in a soft voice, standing on the grass close to the Dorian Parker Centre
Clarence Moore, Shaganash’s uncle, said it’s been a hard two years not knowing where his niece is.
“Usually, Autumn would call her grandma every night. This hasn’t happened in two years … It’s not like Autumn,” he said. “She could not disappear like this on her own."
He hopes someone will come forward with new information.
“(We are hoping) that one day someone will be empathetic and compassionate enough to let us know what has happened, or even to let us know where she is, if she is around, still,” her uncle said.
Shaganash’s cousin, Kimberly Moore, thanked “all the people who have been here for the past two years for us.
“We now have a very good private investigator working with us and helping us,” she said of the Indigenous-led company ISN Maskwa. “They helped us search this whole park last year … We are really, really appreciative that they are here with us today."
She also offered advice to families experiencing a similar tragedy.
“Any families who do lose their loved ones, don’t stop looking,” Kimberly Moore said as she broke down in tears. “We still look for her today. We’re standing in this park, where it was the last place ….”
She trails off as the sun breaks through the clouds, trying to hold back tears.
“Look at the sun coming out — you know that she’s here with us. Even if I don’t know where she is," said Shaganash's cousin.
“I hope that she is alive … I want her to come back now. I want her to come back tomorrow. We are the voice for Autumn right now, because Autumn cannot speak for herself right now,” she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Kimberly Moore said she appreciated the work by local police, and appealed for a country-wide search effort.
“I would like to see Autumn’s face in different provinces around Canada. I would like to see people looking for her in Edmonton and Vancouver, somewhere not close to home. I don’t want anyone to stop looking for her,” she said.
“I just think there needs to be a lot more. There needs to be a specialized team, specifically for this — and that is one of the calls to action, right? And I hope that these things come out of it, and I hope eventually a lot of girls are found, and this doesn’t happen and that we’re more protected — the vulnerable women are more protected."
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, organized by the parties of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, released a report in 2015 recommending 94 Calls to Action for the Canadian government to implement.
“Autumn, if you do hear this somehow … we’re not going to ever stop looking for you. We don’t know where you are, but we’re going to find out one day … Tell us where she is — tell us anonymously," said Kimberly.
Shaganash’s sister, Lili-Anne Moore, says she struggles daily dealing with her emotions over her missing sibling, as do her children.
“My daughters, they miss their auntie,” she told BarrieToday at the park after the news conference wrapped up.
“They ask about her once in a while, and that’s what hurts me the most," she said of her kids, who were six and nine years old when Shaganash went missing.
“She’s pretty much a mom to them,” Shaganash's sister added. “They’ve had a couple dreams about her, and wondering when she is coming home.”
Kimberly Moore says she struggles with her cousin's disappearance every day.
“I wish I could hear her laugh. I wish I just had one more chance to talk to her, you know?” she told BarrieToday. “It’s the biggest regret, not talking to her, because she called me the day before (she went missing) and I didn’t answer as I was at work.”
As in 2024, there are eight electronic billboards throughout the city now displaying information in regards to Shaganash’s disappearance.
“We need to thank a great community business and partner in the community, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, who is running the billboards for the entire month of June here in the city of Barrie,” police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon said at the news conference.
Leon also reminded the public that a $50,000 reward offered last year remains in place and is still available for information which leads investigators to Shaganash’s whereabouts.
“Any time that we get information that may relate back to Autumn’s disappearance, if it was to fall outside of the province, we have excellent working relationships with law enforcement right across this country,” Leon told BarrieToday. “It’s just a matter of making a phone call and getting people out looking in an area should we receive a tip.
“We have certainly not given up hope. Our focus has been, and will remain, reuniting Autumn with her family,” he added.
Timeline of events
June 9, 2023: In the evening hours, Autumn Shaganash leaves her sister’s home in Barrie's Allandale neighbourhood, near Burton Avenue and Frank’s Way. She was wearing a black hoodie, shorts and Puma sandals. She was also carrying a black and tan purse.
June 10, 2023: Between 9:30 a.m and 9:45 a.m., Shaganash’s sister receives a text message asking to be picked up. Only three minutes had passed when her sister tried to respond to the message. But Shaganash’s phone went to voicemail and appeared to have been turned off, according to police. (In January 2024, the private investigator hired by the family noted that, in an effort to unearth potential clues, he had gained access to her “digital footprint” and discovered a message sent in the early-morning hours of June 10, which “alluded to her presence at an unspecified location.”)
June 10, 2023: Police say Shaganash was making her way to the city waterfront to watch the Barrie Airshow with a male friend who was walking ahead of her when she vanished. At the same time, an ALS fundraising event was taking place in Sunnidale Park. She was seen in the Kozlov Street area near Sunnidale Park, and in the Sunnidale Road and Letitia Street area between 10 a.m. and noon. Police have said they have video evidence of this.
June 12, 2023: A missing-person investigation is launched after local police are notified of Shaganash's disappearance. Sunnidale Park was subsequently searched numerous times using police drones and canine teams, but to no avail. Police had also searched downtown Toronto, without any positive results.
June 21, 2023: Police are asked if the case is being treated as an abduction or possibly linked to human trafficking. “There is no evidence that human trafficking is involved, but we obviously are going to look at every possible angle here,” says a police official. “There has been no confirmation that she is being held against her will.”
June 27, 2023: Barrie police make a public appeal to people who were in attendance at the ALS fundraiser for potential photographic/video evidence that could help in the investigation.
Aug. 2, 2023: Investigators release new photos in hopes of jogging people’s memories and generating new leads in the search for Shaganash.
Sept. 19, 2023: Shaganash’s 27th birthday.
Nov. 14, 2023: Shaganash’s sister pleads with the public for information. “We really miss her. It’s been too long,” she says.
Jan. 23, 2024: Shaganash’s family announces they have hired a private investigator, Derwin Johnson, of Toronto-based Present Truth Investigations.
Jan. 27, 2024: The private investigator tells BarrieToday the family has provided evidence to him that they had obtained independent of the police investigation. This includes video surveillance footage from a residential home showing Shaganash walking with the male friend, mentioned above, but the family has also acquired additional video that “they are kind of holding close to their chest,” Johnson says. “They’ve shared (it) with us and we are analyzing that video now.”
Feb. 8, 2024: Almost eight months after Shaganash was reported missing, Barrie police hold a news conference to announce a $50,000 reward for information that helps locate the missing woman. During the question-and-answer period with reporters, police say they have had “numerous” leads.
April 9, 2024: Barrie police announce they have partnered with an advertising company to post signs on Barrie Transit buses and billboards around the city in an effort to locate her.
May 30, 2024: The private investigator tells BarrieToday “a few witnesses have come forward, and leads have been forwarded to (Barrie police), but as you are aware, they will not share the results of their investigative efforts, or if the leads had substance.”
June 9, 2024: Shaganash’s sister tells BarrieToday about a lead being followed involving a black car a witness said was in the Sunnidale area asking a female for a ride. She said a similar black car can be seen in surveillance video.
July 9, 2024: North Bay police say Barrie police received information that Shaganash had been sighted in North Bay on June 21, and asked the public for help in locating her.
Aug 8, 2024: Shaganash’s sister, Lili-Anne Moore, confirms to BarrieToday the North Bay sighting was not Autumn, after reviewing the video footage obtained by police.
June 10, 2025: The family of Autumn Shaganash, along with members of the Barrie Police Service, mark the passing of two years since her disappearance with a press conference at Sunnidale Park. Billboards will once again be utilized for the month of June, with eight used throughout the city.
Author Kevin Lamb with BarrieToday
