Manitoba RCMP make arrest in 10-year-old homicide, release woman the next day

MACGREGOR, Man. — RCMP in Manitoba have released the person they arrested in the homicide of a grandmother nearly 10 years ago.

Spokeswoman Tara Seel said a 30-year-old woman taken into custody in MacGregor, Man., on Wednesday was released Thursday without charges.

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

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.

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

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 Canadian Press