Victim was a grandmother: Manitoba RCMP make arrest in 10-year-old homicide

MACGREGOR, Man. — RCMP in Manitoba have made an arrest in the homicide of a grandmother nearly 10 years ago.

Mounties said the historical case unit took a 30-year-old woman into custody in MacGregor, Man., on Wednesday.

Charlene Ward, who was 46 and from Portage la Prairie, was killed on Nov. 1, 2007.

Ward had worked in a coffee shop, was divorced and had two grown daughters and five grandchildren.

One of her daughters found Ward dead in her Portage home three weeks after she had been told by doctors she had beaten cancer.

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She had been stabbed three times in the neck.

“I looked in her room and I (saw) her lying on the floor at the bottom of her bed. And when I looked up, there was blood all along her bed,” Britney Lake said in October 2010 when police made one of several pleas to the public for help.

“She was clean and clear. She was just starting to live her life over,” said Cherie Lake, another of Ward’s daughters.

Ward’s family believes she put up a fight because they saw bruises on her arms at the funeral home.

The unsolved slaying weighed heavily on the family at the time of the 2010 police request for information. 

“I had nightmares. (I) still go through counselling. I’ll probably have to go for counselling the rest of my life,” said Britney Lake.

Police say the investigation into Ward’s death is ongoing and anyone with information should contact the RCMP or Manitoba Crime Stoppers.

— With background from CTV Winnipeg

The Canadian Press

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