Amanda Sophia Bartlett, 17, planned to become a published author, but was seen for the last time in July 1996 around Winnipeg’s Selkirk Avenue at Salter Street.
She was living in a group home and had run away, the group home told the family they had no obligation to follow her. Winnipeg Police only started work on the missing persons case in February 2008. It took 12 years and the help of Amnesty International to finally have her classified as a missing person. In November 2012, the case was assigned to Project Devote, a task force dedicated to missing and murdered persons cases in Manitoba.
In 2018, Amanda’s family spoke at the MMIWG inquiry hearing in Thompson, Manitoba. Her mother and sister both shared their frustrations about how hard it was to report Amanda missing, they were bounced back and forth between the RCMP and the Winnipeg Police Service about who was responsible for trying to find her.
“Why was my word, and my mom’s word, not good enough? Why did they have to make us wait so long?” said Amanda’s sister, Janet Lowther.
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