Amanda Sophia Bartlett was 17 when she vanished from the streets of Winnipeg in July 1996. A member of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation who had lived much of her life on Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas, she was last seen by an uncle near Selkirk Avenue and Salter Street in the North End after running away from a Child and Family Services group home. Her uncle offered shelter but Amanda never arrived.

Weeks later CFS sent the family a letter saying Amanda had left the group home and, because she was 17, they had no obligation to follow her. The family reports repeated difficulty getting police to take a missing persons report; they say they were turned away by both the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP and passed between the two agencies. A formal missing persons file was not opened by Winnipeg police until February 2008 after outside advocacy got involved.

The case was later assigned to Project Devote in November 2012, but no significant developments have been reported and Amanda’s whereabouts remain unknown. Did anyone in Winnipeg’s North End in July 1996 see Amanda or recall someone matching her description near Selkirk and Salter?