Police identify woman’s body pulled from Red River in 2012

WINNIPEG – Winnipeg police have identified the body of Audrey Desjarlais almost three years after she was pulled from the Red River. They are now asking for help from the public in determining how the 52-year-old Alberta-born woman died, probably in January 2012.

WATCH: Winnipeg Police recover body from Red River in 2012

Desjarlais, originally from Saddle Lake, Alta., was recently identified using DNA from her daughter, Barb Desjarlais.

Desjarlais’ badly decomposed body was found in a trash bag in the Red River in North Kildonan on June 15, 2012, but the medical examiner wasn’t able to identify her. The missing persons unit was assigned to investigate the death, police said in a news release Friday morning.

The autopsy indicated Desjarlais, classified as a Jane Doe after her body was discovered, had been in the river for weeks and possibly months before her body was found, the news release said. The medical examiner couldn’t determine a cause of death, but there were no obvious signs of injury or trauma on the body, police said.

Investigators first started exploring the possibility that that body was Audrey Desjarlais in September 2012, but two witnesses stated they’d seen her in late September in Steinbach and in early October in Grunthal, the news release said. Police now know those witnesses were mistaken, but at the time they shifted the focus of their investigation after hearing those reports.

A media report about the case in April prompted the police to again focus on the case, and it was then that the DNA sample was taken from Barb Desjarlais that resulted in identification of the remains.

Police, who first sought help identifying Desjarlais’ body back in 2012, are now asking anyone who knows anything about her last days to contact them. Police believe she died sometime around January 2012. Anyone who has information about her is asked to call the missing persons unit at 204-986-6250.