PENTICTON – Monday will be a somber anniversary, marking one year since the death of Roxanne Louie.
On Saturday evening in Penticton, Louie’s friends and family held a candlelight vigil in her memory.
“It hasn’t only been affecting the adults, my children too are affected. It’s been hard, very hard,” says Charlynn Crowshe, who was best friends with Louie and considered her a sister.
Twenty-six-year-old Louie’s body was found in a wooded area near Naramata.
“She was a very kind, loving person, mother, daughter, sister. She didn’t deserve this,” says Crowshe.
Grace Elinor Robotti and her brother, Pier Louis Robotti, are charged with second-degree murder.
Grace is Louie’s four-year-old son’s great-grandmother.
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The pair was released on bail in March in a decision that left many outraged.
“We just want justice. We have to live with this loss,” says Crowshe.
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About two dozen people attended the vigil, including Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.
“We are coming together once again to commemorate that enormous loss to our community, to her family,” says Phillip.
Phillip says the vigil was also an opportunity to continue raising awareness about the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.
“There’s this racist notion within society that somehow indigenous women and girls are disposable and that they can be taken against their will,” says Phillip.
Last month, the federal government officially launched the first phase of an inquiry.
“If it wasn’t for events like this out in cold weather over the last 20 or 25 years, the marches, the candlelight vigils, we never would have achieved the national inquiry,” says Phillip.
~ With files from Angela Jung
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