Marie Lorna Laliberte, a woman of First Nations descent, was last seen on New Year’s Day 1997 in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Born in the late 1940s and with connections to Beauval, Saskatchewan, she had also lived in Edmonton. She used multiple aliases, including Kim Gertrude, Lorraine, Marie Laura and surnames such as Bouvier, Cannon and Wilkinson.

At the time she was living a high-risk lifestyle and struggling with drug addiction. She was 5 feet 6 inches, thin, with short curly brown hair, brown eyes and a flower tattoo on her left shoulder. The last known sighting was by her resource worker. No contact or confirmed sightings have been reported since 1997, but she was not reported missing until March 8, 2002, because of infrequent communication with family and a limited social life.

Investigators and commentators have included her case among the many missing Indigenous women from that era; because of the time and place of her disappearance some have speculated a link to convicted offender Robert Pickton. Her disappearance is considered a suspected homicide by some, though the long delay in reporting and her transient circumstances have complicated the investigation. Did anyone in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside around 1997 ever see Marie or know where she went after New Year’s Day?