True Crime with Kendall Rae - She Recorded Her Killer Yet Authorities Botched the Investigation: The Murder of Amber Tuccaro

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Amber Alyssa Tuccaro was a young mother and member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, living in Fort McMurray, Canada. In August of 2010, while on a trip to Edmonton with her son and a friend, Amber de...cided to hitchhike into the city, but after doing so, she was never seen again. Her mom reported her missing. However, the RCMP wouldn't listen and didn't care. They did next to nothing to search for Amber and even destroyed her personal belongings. For 2 years, her family was without answers until August of 2012 came around, and the RCMP released a 1-minute recording from a 17-minute call that Amber placed on the day it's believed she died. That day, Amber called her brother and because he was incarcerated, it was recorded and stored. In the recording, you can hear Amber begin to worry that the man who picked her up is not taking her where she wants to go. Her body was found 4 days after the recording was released, and there has been no justice to this day. National Indigenous Women's Resource Center: https://www.niwrc.org/ Reclaiming Power & Peace: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content...  RCMP Investigation Report: https://www.scribd.com/document/41476... RCMP Alberta on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RCMPAlberta I am requesting information on the murder of First Nation's woman Amber Tuccaro. Please inform the public about what is being done to find her killer and get justice after all these years. #JusticeForAmberTuccaro @RCMPAlberta Email: RCMP.ALBERTA.GRC@rcmp-grc.gc.ca From now until the end of the year I am matching donations to NCMEC! See our progress, make a donation, and track my contributions here: https://give.missingkids.org/campaign...  Shop my Merch! https://kendallrae.shop This episode is sponsored by: Nutrafol - promo code: KENDALLRAE Huggies Pretty Litter Rocket Money Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - kendall@INFAgency.com

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Starting point is 00:00:37 Hello everyone and welcome back to True Crime with Kendall Ray. I'm so happy to have you here with me today as we discuss yet another case. And if you are new, then welcome. So today we're gonna be talking about a case that definitely needs to be talked about. More people need to know about it because it was extremely mishandled and there's still no justice to this day.
Starting point is 00:00:59 We're gonna be talking about Amber Alyssa Tuckaro who was only 20 years old. She's a mother and her story needs to be told more people need to know. Before we jump into that though, I wanted to quickly mention that I am currently matching donations for the National Center for Missing and Exploded Children. If you make a donation to our campaign page for any amount, I will match it from now until the end of the year. So if you would like to take advantage of that, please do so. And if you are looking for holiday gifts or you want to treat yourself this season,
Starting point is 00:01:28 you can also pick up any of our NeckMet collection at kendelray.shop. And 100% of the profit is also donated to National Center for Missing Exploded Children. And I also just put out a new T-C-K-R hoodie that is excellent quality. I love how this one turned out. The color is amazing. And it's probably the best quality hoodie we have ever put out So I'm really excited about that if you'd like to pick one up and support this channel and my team We would really appreciate it and before I jump into Amber's story
Starting point is 00:01:54 I wanted to highlight a non-profit that would be Excellent to give back to this time of year the National Indigenous Women's Center, this organization provides leadership to end violence against American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance, and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty. I will of course be making a donation on behalf of this channel in Amber's name, and if you were also able to donate, that would be wonderful so I'll have that linked below. But with all that and thank you for your patience, I appreciate it. Let's get into Amber's story and the earliest parts of her life. Amber Alyssa was born January 3rd 1990 and shortly thereafter was adopted by her
Starting point is 00:02:38 biological parents Cousins, the Tuckeros. Her mom Vivian, who goes by Tutsi, already had four boys and was so happy to welcome a baby girl into their lives. She was originally born in Fort Chippewan, but later relocated to Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada. Amber and the rest of her family were and currently are members of the Mika Su Kree First Nation.
Starting point is 00:02:59 And Amber had great pride in her indigenous heritage. The Mika Su people have many sacred virtues, but just to highlight a few, they value love, respect, truth, humility, courage, and wisdom, all things that Amber truly embodied. And from the time that she was a baby, Amber was loved and fiercely protected by her family, and they continue to do that to this day. Growing up, she loved to sing and dance, and one day had hopes of becoming famous for these talents, but as many of us are aware,
Starting point is 00:03:30 life can come at you quickly, and sometimes plans change. And that appears to have been the case for Amber. In June of 2009, when Amber was 19 years old, she became a single mother after giving birth to her son, Jacob. And Jacob quickly became her entire world, and she spent every night they had to get her singing him to sleep, and those were really special moments for her. Now from what I've gathered, Amber's living situation seemed to vary, but she was intent
Starting point is 00:03:57 on finding her own place where she could continue to raise her son. However, Fort McMurray wasn't cheap, which led Amber and Jacob to spend several weeks at Waypoint's Unity House, which is a shelter for women and children. Unity House allows women and mothers in need of shelter a place to stay, and resources for support up to 21 days. And Amber said to have stayed there a total of three times. And I want to be clear that Amber fully had the support of her family during these times, but she was that type of person who wanted to be independent as much as she could. And part of this independence meant meeting new people on establishing new relationships. And that's exactly what she did. While she was staying at Unity House, Amber met this woman who is referred to in the
Starting point is 00:04:41 media by a vanjoline. And I'm not 100% sure that that's her name, but I will be referring to her as a Vangeline throughout this video. So Amber and a Vangeline meet at Unity House and develop some sort of friendship. And after only knowing each other for a couple of weeks, they decide to take a trip together to Edmonton. Edmonton is the capital of Alberta.
Starting point is 00:05:03 And because of its size and several local attractions, it gave people like Amber the chance to explore new places. Just think of it like going to visit the nearest big city to you wherever you live. I mean just getting out of your small town and seeing new things, experiencing a new place is fun and exciting and that's exactly what Evangelion and Amber were planning to do. And they had planned for this trip to be pretty quick. They were going to be there for two days, just enough time to see the Edmonton Mall and other local attractions and then come home. And Amber even decided that she wanted to bring her son Jacob, despite her mom having some
Starting point is 00:05:36 hesitations about that. She asked her to leave him with her, but she assured Tutsi that the two of them would be gone for only two sleeps and then be back home in no time. But less than a day after leaving for this trip, Amber disappeared, seemingly without a trace. On August 17, 2010, Amber, Jacob, and Evangeline all boarded a short flight from Fort McMurray to Edmonton. And upon their arrival, they checked into a motel located in Nisq. And for anyone that's familiar with this region a motel located in Niske. And for anyone that's familiar with this region, you'll know that Niske was actually
Starting point is 00:06:08 about 30 minutes south of Edmonton, but because it was cheaper than actually staying in Edmonton, the girls decided to stay there instead. Now, of course, saving money is a huge plus, but the one downside to staying in Niske was that they're 30 minutes away from Edmonton, and so they had to figure out a way to get into the city. And from all the reporting I've gone through, it doesn't seem like they rented a car. And that obviously leaves them with two options,
Starting point is 00:06:32 public transportation or hitchhiking. Now, what's so frustrating when reporting on certain cases is that they don't always have the best coverage, the best reporting. And so there are a lot of questions that are left unanswered that I would love to have the answers to. I'd love to share with you guys,
Starting point is 00:06:49 but this is just one of those cases where the information is pretty limited or confusing. And so what they actually did when they got there, either completely varies based on what report you read or is completely left out of reporting. So I'm gonna do my best to share with you what we do know for sure. After I had my daughter, my hair became super weakened and it was thinning. I couldn't believe it. And I didn't know where to turn. So I did some research on my own and I found neutralful.
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Starting point is 00:08:32 $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping. When you go to Newtrophil.com and enter promo code Kendall Ray, find out why over 4,000 health care professionals recommend Newtrophil for healthier hair. That's Newtrophil.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-Full for healthier hair. This episode of True Crime with Kendall Ray is brought to you by Huggies Little Movers. Huggies knows that babies come in all shapes and sizes, and they're tosies due too. Huggies best fitting diaper is their little movers with its curved and stretchy fit. Parents know that there's nothing worse than an ill fitting diaper, especially for your active babies. We love huggies in our house because we can rely on them to keep our baby covered while
Starting point is 00:09:13 she's moving around. And now that she's 16 months, she is moving around a lot. We also love that they offer up to 12 hour protection against leaks, which has been a game changer for us, especially because our daughter sleeps 11 to 12 hours a night, and she never wakes up because of a leak, so we don't have to change her diaper and disturb her sleep. It's amazing. And Huggies Little Movers are curved, so our daughter feels comfortable no matter how much she's moving around. And like I said, she's moving around a lot. So get your babies butt into Huggies's best-fitting diaper. Huggie's little movers. We got you, baby. So the day after arriving, which would be August 18th, it's been reported that Amber, Jacob
Starting point is 00:09:53 and Evangeline went to Edmonton, as was their plan all along, and eventually returned to their motel later that afternoon. And then sources say that around 7.30 to 8pm, Amber decided she wanted to go back to Edmonton on her own. And the reason why she wanted to go back to Edmonton is just unknown, which is really frustrating because I really wish we knew, and maybe it would help all this to make more sense. Some sources say that she was just getting food, some sources say that she wanted to explore a little bit more,
Starting point is 00:10:24 you know, see more of the city on her own with a short time that she was there, but without knowing for sure, there's really no point in guessing. But the one thing that we do know for certain is that she did attempt to get to Edmonton on her own and that she tried to hitchhike there. And as most of you know, hitchhiking can be incredibly, incredibly dangerous and scary. You just never know who is going to pick you up and what their intentions are. So I would caution all of you out there to avoid Hitchhiking as much as possible. And Amber's mom did try to tell her that she didn't want her to Hitchhike, that it's incredibly dangerous and not worth the risk.
Starting point is 00:11:01 And she told Amber some great advice if she did end up hitchhiking or even took a cab to pretend to be on her phone so that the person driving would think twice before doing something terrible to you. But if there was one thing that Tutsi knew about her daughter, it was that if she wanted to do something, she was going to do it. And so like I said, on the 18th, for reasons we don't know,
Starting point is 00:11:23 Amber wanted to go back to Edmonton. So she leaves the motel. She leaves her 14-month-old son in the care of Evangeline and stands on the curb to hitch a ride. And sadly, this is the last known sighting of Amber Tuckero while she was still alive. Now, given that Tootsie was already concerned about her daughter and this trip from the get-go, she was constantly checking in with her throughout her time there. And up until the 18th, Amber was doing a good job of keeping her updated. Whether it was through text or phone call, Amber was in constant communication until the
Starting point is 00:11:56 communication just stopped. And it's been reported that Tutsi even tried calling a vanjalling to check in on her daughter, and that a vanjalling answered and told her that Amber and her son were both asleep, which we know isn't true. But what we don't know is why she lied. I mean, maybe she just didn't want Amber's mom to worry, but maybe there was another reason. But the reason for lying aside, it was because of this lie that Tootsie didn't find out that her daughter had left and didn't return until the next morning. So on August 19th, 2020, Totsi called the RCMP, which stands for Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to report her daughter missing. Or I should probably say she attempted to report her daughter missing.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Because when she called, she was told not to worry about her daughter. That she was probably fine, she was an adult, and she would probably come back after she was done partying. And of course, this lack of regard for this mother's genuine concern about her missing daughter absolutely discussed me, but sadly, it doesn't surprise me whether it's Canada, America, wherever we hear this narrative all too often in true crime. Plus, you just have to take into account that she was an Indigenous woman reporting another Indigenous woman as missing. Brushing her mother's concerns about her daughter being missing under the rug and then telling her that she's probably just out partying, feeds into a very dangerous
Starting point is 00:13:21 stereotype about Indigenous people and it's just completely unacceptable. Plus, as most of you out there know, if you are true crime consumers, the first 48 hours in a missing person's case is the most critical, most crucial time to start searching for them. And I am so tired of hearing of cases where people's concerns are just brushed aside and nothing is done in that first 48 hours. It's such a slap in the face and such a failure of police departments across the world. But being the strong woman that she is, Tutsi did not take no for an answer. She continued to push the RCMP to do something about it that entire day and into the next day. And so on the 20th, they finally at least added Amber to a missing person's list.
Starting point is 00:14:09 However, adding her to the list was the only, and I mean only thing that they did. And it's clearly just to appease her mother at that point. It is so frustrating to think about, but there was no effort to search for her, no effort to canvas the area that she was, no effort to talk to the last person Who was with her? Evangeline and her mother called every day begging them for updates on her daughter's disappearance and at no point Was she given any reassurance that steps were being taken to locate her? In fact on September 4th just two weeks after she was reported missing, the R-C-M-P
Starting point is 00:14:45 removed Amber from the missing person's list. Why, I'm sure you're asking? You would hope that it would be because they located her. But no, of course not. Instead, a press release came out, stating that the R-C-M-P no longer believed Amber was in any danger, and this was based on the tip they received from an individual claiming to have seen her. And to be absolutely 100% abundantly clear here, this tip was never actually followed up on or confirmed. I'm sure this will shock most of you, but basically all this tip was, was someone called in, said that they saw someone they thought matched Amber's description, and that was enough for them without even following up with them and confirming it.
Starting point is 00:15:26 That was enough for them to tell the public and her family that she was okay. Obviously this is insane and makes no sense. And Tutsi had to beg them to put her back on the list. And at first they were reluctant to do so. And you guys, that is not even the worst of what they did. This will shock you. But once they removed Amber from the missing person's list, they destroyed her suitcase and other belongings. Yes, you heard that right. RCMP officials destroyed her belongings because they no longer believed she was a missing person
Starting point is 00:15:58 without any evidence that she's not a missing person. Make it make sense. But if they truly believed that that was the case, why not return her belongings back to her family or even better return them to her. If she's no longer missing and to be clear, they were the only ones that thought Amber was fine. Her family and loved ones knew the reality that they were facing. And that's the reality of the violence that Indigenous women and girls truly face. The crisis and quite frankly genocide that Indigenous women and girls face in Canada is a phenomenon that cannot and should not be ignored. I plan to share a lot more on this towards the end of this episode, so please stick around for that. But Tutsi, her family, and the Mekesu
Starting point is 00:16:41 people knew that Amber was now another stolen sister. An awareness walk was held in July of 2011. It was put on by the stolen sister's awareness organization and the Tucker O'Roe family. And it was just one of the many efforts to highlight Amber's case as well as the reality of violence that indigenous women and girls face. By this point, they knew it was sadly a matter of finding Amber's body and convincing the RCMP to care enough to help them. In April of 2012, the Tucker O'Family received a call from investigators saying that they now believed
Starting point is 00:17:12 that Amber was in fact a victim of foul play. And the reason they suddenly now believed this was because of something that Amber did right before she was murdered. It turns out that on August 18th, likely minutes before she got into her abductors car, she called her brother, who at the time was serving time at the Edmonton Raman Center. And because he was incarcerated, luckily the phone call was recorded and stored.
Starting point is 00:17:38 Now the audio from this phone call, which I am gonna play for you all, the parts that we do have of it, is a conversation between Amber and her killer. Now this call actually lasted 17 minutes, but unfortunately only a minute of it has been released to the public. So from what we can hear, Amber appears to be in distress and is concerned that the driver
Starting point is 00:17:59 is taking her somewhere else, somewhere she didn't want to go. She of course wanted to go north towards the city of Edmonton, but she appears to think that the driver is taking her somewhere else. And you'll hear in the call that she is asking him what direction he is taking her and that he tries convincing her
Starting point is 00:18:18 that he is taking her to Edmonton just a different way. But it becomes very clear later on that he is lying. Now let's go. Are you fucking kidding me? Why not? Just a minute. I can't see you better. I'm thinking we have anywhere I don't want to go. I want to go into the city. Kidding. What is this thing? Yo, what are going in this city, are we? We're going.
Starting point is 00:18:56 Well, we're not. Yeah, I want to go. What is going to? 50th Street. 50th Street. Are you sure? Absolutely. Where are we going? 50th Street. 50th Street. And what's interesting is that first he actually slips up and says that he is taking herself and then corrects himself and says he's taking her north. This audio was released by the RCMP on August 28, 2012, and people from the area and from all over who are asked to listen and help identify this man's voice
Starting point is 00:19:49 and thousands of tips poured in and some or better than others, but to this day, the police are still asking the public for help identifying this man. And that brings us to September 1, 2012, which is actually just four days after that call was released to the public. A group of horseback riders actually stumbled across a set of partial remains in a heavily wooded area.
Starting point is 00:20:11 And sadly, those remains were later determined too long to Amber Alyssa Tuckero. And sadly, her remains were too decomposed to determine a cause of death, but the location of her remains gave way to some important information. Amber's body was located in Ladut County, approximately 20 minutes south of the Niskey Motel. Now, if you remember, I told you that that call lasted 17 minutes, which means Amber must have felt unsafe
Starting point is 00:20:39 within minutes of getting into this car. And this also tells us that most likely shortly after this call was dropped, Amber lost her life. Now of course there is a possibility that she was killed somewhere else and then later brought to this location. However just going off what's been reported, it's believed she was killed right away and left in the place that she was found. And because of where her remains were found, the RCMP believes that her killer is someone who lives in the area and knows it well. So I have 10 pets.
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Starting point is 00:23:56 As I said, thousands of tips came in, but there were some that were much more useful than others. Well, it turns out that several women who listened to the call knew without a shadow of a doubt whose voice that was. And that is Edmonton Local, Patrick Carson. Three women were anonymously interviewed by CBC News back in 2015 and they all shared that they were confident that they knew the identity of the man in this call.
Starting point is 00:24:23 One woman said, I know that voice. I've written with that voice before on several occasions. There's no doubt in my mind that that's his voice. Another said that she knew that voice like the back of her hand. All three women said they reported Patrick Carson to the RCMP as soon as they heard that recording. Before I get into how the RCMP has responded to these reports, let's talk about this Patrick Carson guy.
Starting point is 00:24:48 And before I do so, obviously I just have to say that Patrick Carson is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. So Patrick Carson, who is also known to use the alias Ed Flynn, is a man with an extensive record of violence against women. In January of 2003, he was released from prison after serving a sentence for sexual exploitation and touching a minor for sexual purposes. However, his record also includes sexual assault, paying for sex from juvenile prostitutes
Starting point is 00:25:16 and choking to overcome resistance. Patrick lives on a ranch 31 miles outside of Edmonton, and his MO for targeting victims is by creating fake job listings. These listings, which have mostly been removed from the internet, advertise different jobs and different experiences people can have on his farm. People can tend to the animals or just have a place to get away from the world. He's also known to change the name of his ranch on different listings, which in my opinion
Starting point is 00:25:41 is a tactic so people don't make the connection between his ranch and bad experiences, people may report having there online. There is even a website dedicated to warning people about this man, where people have shared testimonials on their experiences with Patrick and his farm. And it's been said that he also drives around the Edmonton area, looking for women to come with him to his farm and use his people that do come to his farm to recruit others to follow him back. Now, considering the fact that Amber was picked up by someone who the police believe knew the area well and Patrick was someone who would drive around
Starting point is 00:26:14 recruiting people to come to his creepy farm, it certainly just makes you wonder if he could be the person responsible for her murder. But here's the thing, the police say that after receiving reports from multiple women that Patrick is possibly the voice in that recording, they have looked into him. And they have been able to clear him
Starting point is 00:26:34 of any involvement in Amber's murder and clear him as a suspect. Now, I definitely have some thoughts on that and him being ruled out as a suspect, but before I get into that, there is one more theory to consider. And that is the possibility that maybe she was murdered by a serial killer. The RCMP has not ruled out the possibility that there is a serial killer in the Edmonton
Starting point is 00:26:56 area that is specifically targeting indigenous women. And the reason for that is because Amber's body was found within the same three mile radius as a handful of other indigenous women, all of whom were hitchhiking when they were lasting. And so it doesn't feel like a coincidence that Amber, an indigenous woman, was also found in the same area as these other women. But ultimately, whoever killed Amber has not been held responsible, and the Tuckero family felt and still feels that the RCMP's
Starting point is 00:27:25 efforts have only hurt their chances at getting justice. I mean, you've already heard me go over the outrageous things they did and didn't do from the very start of this case. They refused to take Tootsie's concern seriously. They removed Amber from the Missing Persons list after an unsubstantiated claim that she was seen, they destroyed her personal belongings and so much more. And that's why, in March of 2014, the Tucker O'Family submitted a complaint against the RCMP to the civilian review and complaints commission. And after four years of patience, a 120-page report was released, and it validated the concerns that they've expressed since day one. The RCMP failed Amber, and they failed her family.
Starting point is 00:28:06 I obviously can't get into all 120 pages, but I wanted to read you the summary outlined in the reports you can truly get a sense of the gravity of these failures. In summary, the commission found that the investigation into mistuckers disappearance was deficient. In that various members were either not properly trained or did not adhere to their training, and that various members were either not properly trained or did not adhere to their training and that various members did not comply with policies, procedures and guidelines.
Starting point is 00:28:31 The report also identified shortcomings with the existing training policies, procedures and guidelines. It outlines the fact that it took RCMP officials an entire month after she was reported to actually start looking into the details of her disappearance. And on top of that, it took them four months to begin conducting interviews related to the case. The report calls these actions unreasonable and unexplainable. And it also appears that a vangeline was never contacted, interviewed, or considered a suspect, which the Tuck-Roll family feels is a grave injustice. And the report goes on to detail 24 total findings related to the RCMP's investigation into
Starting point is 00:29:08 Amber's disappearance and death, and offers 17 recommendations for how they can improve their procedures moving forward, and essentially how they can write this wrong. And while I'm not going to read every finding and recommendation, I do want to share some of the recommendations from the commission. The first and most obvious recommendation being a public apology, which you think would be the easiest thing to start with. The mishandling of this investigation, not only potentially prevented Amber from getting
Starting point is 00:29:34 just as sooner, or even at all, but it also further traumatized a family and the entire indigenous community as a whole. Another recommendation was that the R-SAMP needs to develop a strategy for increased dialogue and collaboration between themselves and the First Nations people related to missing persons files. Another I wanted to highlight is the recommendation for lifestyle bias screening during the training process for RCMP members. Now these are just a few of the things
Starting point is 00:30:00 highlighted in the report and I will have the report linked below if you would like to check it out for yourself. The Tuckero family has only released a portion of the report, but the portion they did released is plenty of information for you to become familiar with the report if you would like to look at it further. But what's interesting to me though, is that the report did say
Starting point is 00:30:20 that there was no evidence to support allegations of conscious or unconscious racial bias. However, not surprisingly, the Tuckero family and the chief of the Mika Suu Kree First Nation disagree, and I'm sure many of you also disagree. I certainly disagree. In 2019, the Deputy Commissioner for the Alberta RCMP issued an apology to the Tuckero family saying they are listening and learning. However, Tootsie has made it clear that they do not accept this apology. On behalf of the RCMP, I am truly sorry. Words Amber Tuckero's relatives have been waiting nine years to hear,
Starting point is 00:30:57 ever since she went missing your Edmonton in 2010. I fully acknowledge that in the early days of our investigation into Amber's disappearance, that it required a better sense of urgency and care. But there were a few details on why things were mishandled. Why Amber's name was removed from a missing person's list shortly after she vanished. Last scene getting into an unknown man's car. And... Why it took two years't want to go.
Starting point is 00:31:27 Why it took two years for police to release this recording of a conversation between Amber and the driver. Where are we, bye? We're just having something to call on. They're north of Olalai. Amber's remains were found in 2012. All this time later, what the police had to say rings hollow to her loved ones. As of right now, the apology doesn't mean anything to me, because they did it because they were torn to death. Just this year, Tootsie, her sons, and the
Starting point is 00:32:00 chief returned to Edmonton to speak out on the failures of the RCMP, or whoever takes the information, when a parent reports their child missing, put yourself in their shoes and think, what if that was me? What if that was my child? And I get told, they'll come home. They'll come home in their 10th party.
Starting point is 00:32:43 It's going on 13 years. We still have no answer. We still have, we still don't know who Amber's killer is. And that itself, it's a daily struggle. It's a daily struggle. And then you go on and use, or you see on a new Facebook, or whatever. Another missing, missing person. I mean, my heart breaks for them. And I feel their pain.
Starting point is 00:33:06 I wish I was number here. I wish I was not here speaking right now. I wish my daughter was here. I wish Amber was with Jacob to be a mom to her, her brothers to be with her brothers, but she's not. So I have to continue to be her voice no matter how painful no matter Whatever takes I have to continue to be her voice She's my baby. She's my baby girl She's my son's baby sister and last but not least she's Jacob's mom and some dirty bastard out there
Starting point is 00:33:42 Stolen my baby's life from her family, from her son. But one thing I know for sure, I will never, never give up. And I will never be swayed to say what I want to say. I have a voice, and I am Amber's voice, and I will continue to be Amber's voice. Her brother also spoke and I wanted to play a clip of him speaking as well.
Starting point is 00:34:18 Our goal as a family was to not let another Aboriginal person case go that goes missing just to be swept under the rug. And till this day, 10 years later, we're still dealing with this. As I just had a member go missing about a month ago, his name was Jade Makai. The RCMP did not take the case serious. I don't understand why we do public inquiries to these if, uh, if the recommendations aren't considered or are taken into consideration and actually acted on, the days of us just being an inconvenient Indian is over. No matter who we are as a person, you cut us all.
Starting point is 00:34:57 We all bleed red, no matter what race we're from. And that has always been our stance was as a family was to advocate for other Aboriginal families. And for this to keep going on 10 years later and these recommendations is totally unacceptable. And as I'm sure you guys can tell, the murder of Amber is still as fresh of a wound for this family as it was 13 years ago. And it's a wound that will never be healed until this case is solved, and Amber's killer is brought to justice. Now, in January of 2020, there was some movement in this case, if you can even call it that,
Starting point is 00:35:33 when a man came forward saying that his father was the one who killed Amber. This guy, Justin McKisson, said that his father, David McKisson, was responsible for not only Amber's death, but a handful of other missing and murdered people in Alberta, Canada. Justin claims that it's his father's voice in the background of that phone call, and that he'd been living on a rural ranch in the greater Edmonton area on and off since 2009. However, our Sam P. officials say that after looking into these claims, they realize that
Starting point is 00:36:03 a lot of the people that Justin claims his father killed are already solved cases. They also say that they believe he is not a reliable source, and they believe there is no connection between his father and Amber Tuckero. Now, I haven't seen anywhere where explicit reasons are given for why he was cleared, but let's be honest. We didn't get those reasons for Patrick Carson and why he was cleared either. They just seemed to say, oh yeah, no, we looked into him and he didn't do it. And we're supposed to just believe that after everything the RCMP has failed to do in this case. I mean, after learning more about the report and the investigation being called deficient, I'm not confident or convinced that any of these people should have been removed from their
Starting point is 00:36:44 suspect list. So I'm curious to hear what you guys of these people should have been removed from their suspect list. So I'm curious to hear what you guys think about this. I mean, can we trust the RCMP that they did their due diligence to clear these people? I don't think so. Now before I end today's episode, I want to take some time to discuss a little bit more the ongoing crisis that indigenous women and girls are facing in Canada. And while I'm aware and have reported on cases coming out of America as well, more, the ongoing crisis that Indigenous women and girls are facing in Canada. And while I'm aware and have reported on cases coming out of America as well, since we are talking about Amber's case and she's from Canada, I want to focus specifically on
Starting point is 00:37:13 Canada today. The information I'm sharing with you guys today comes from a report from the National Inquiry into missing Indigenous women and girls, where thousands of people share their stories for the sake of bringing awareness to the crisis. This report ultimately concludes that Canada is complicit in those deaths and disappearances of thousands of First Nations people, and that they've enabled genocide for years. Colonialism and an indifferent government are just two of the things that this report cites as the reasons for this continued crisis.
Starting point is 00:37:43 The report itself is titled Power and Place, and I plan to link it in the description for you as well, but it is over 500 pages long, so I'm gonna share a handful of insights and statistics that I feel are important. Starting with the fact that the RCMP continuously misreports on the number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls yearly.
Starting point is 00:38:03 Misreporting these numbers downplays the significance of this crisis tremendously and it's unacceptable. What is happening to these people needs to be shared in full? Not just what makes the R-SAMP look less bad. The report also talks about the hyper-sexualization of indigenous women and girls, and how that just feeds into the perception that violence against them is okay. And it's not okay. Violence against anyone is wrong.
Starting point is 00:38:27 And what a woman chooses to do with her body does not justify what has been done to them. A recommendation from the report also states that our CMP members should be required to go through a screening process for biased against cultures and people experiencing poverty, which is a similar recommendation to what we heard earlier from the investigation report. And I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but if a person in power is showing signs of bias, maybe it's not a good idea to hire them. I feel like that's just a given, but apparently not to the RCMP. I also want to share a few statistics about the crisis that really puts into perspective
Starting point is 00:39:00 how bad the violence really is. Indigenous women are more likely to be killed by acquaintances than non-indigenous women, and seven times as likely to be targeted by serial killers. According to their calculations, Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or missing than any other woman in Canada, and 16 times more likely than Caucasian women. Even when faced with the depth and breadth of this violence, many people still believe that indigenous people
Starting point is 00:39:27 are to blame due to their so-called high-risk lifestyles. However, statistics Canada has found that even when all other differentiating factors are accounted for, indigenous women are still at a significantly higher risk of violence than non-indigenous women. This validates what many indigenous women and girls already know.
Starting point is 00:39:45 Just being indigenous and female makes you a target. Like I said, this is only a fraction of what's listed in the report and I encourage you to check it out for yourself that will be linked below. While efforts are continuously being taken to hold the RCMP accountable, it's important that we don't let up on them. We must continue to speak the name of Amber Tuckero and the names of all the other stolen sisters, so that one day justice can be served.
Starting point is 00:40:10 Like I said at the beginning of this episode, I will be making a donation on behalf of this channel and all of you in Amber's name to the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. And I encourage you, if you're able to also make a donation as well. I will have their page linked below as well as other resources on the crisis if you're interested in learning more. I also want to encourage you to be an active true crime consumer and maybe consider tweeting at the RCMP on Twitter and ask that they be more transparent with what they're doing, what they're actually doing to help solve Amber's murder. Amber deserves so much more, and her family deserves so much more, and it's mind-blowing to me that they're just fighting for the RCMP to care. Yes, they said their apologies and admitted that their initial investigation wasn't the best,
Starting point is 00:40:51 but it's all talk. Where's the action? Is anyone being interviewed in connection with her murder? Are surveillance tapes being pulled? What is being done? These are the things we need them to talk about to address, and they just aren't. So until Amber's killer is found, it's our job to keep saying her name and putting as much pressure on them as possible. I will have a sample tweet. They can just copy paste. Unless you want to write
Starting point is 00:41:15 your own, of course, you can do that as well. And I will also have an email draft that you can send them and an email sample that you can easily send them off as well. I personally, I mean, do both, but if you're able to tweet at them, I think public pressure gets to them the most. I know this was long. I know we went over a lot of statistics and information. It was heavy, but I really appreciate those of you out there who are willing to listen and take this issue seriously. This crisis is out of control and something has got to change.
Starting point is 00:41:46 We have got to continue to put pressure and keep seeing the names of the missing and murdered Indigenous women around the world. I won't lie covering cases like this when there is just such massive failure by the people who are supposed to protect us, supposed to protect everyone. It's so unbelievably frustrating. I'm sitting here, just seating, I'm shaking. I have a rash going at this point, but it's very important to talk about. And again, I thank you all for taking the time
Starting point is 00:42:14 to listen to Amber's story. That is gonna be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts It really does help me out if you want to watch the video version of this show You can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked or you can just search Kendall Ray I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there
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