It was Laurie Nixon’s worst fear that her daughter’s remains would be found on a farm only a half hour drive from her Vernon home.
“So close and I couldn’t help her,” said Nixon, Traci Genereaux’s mother.
The 18-year-old’s remains were discovered on a Salmon River Road farm they have been excavating since Oct. 19, RCMP confirmed Wednesday night.
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On Monday, before Genereaux’s remains were positively matched to family DNA samples requested on Thursday, Nixon made it clear she didn’t want to think about her daughter being involved with the farm investigation.
“I don’t want Traci to be involved in that,” she said.
Genereaux went missing May 29. Her mother last heard from her by text message.
“She came to me in the morning and asked for a smoke and I said, ‘okay but you look terrible today so you have to go to my room or go do something and can’t sit in the lobby.’ She’s like, ‘I got plans,’ and she went out. Then she texted me at about 9:30 that night asking for a telescope because I bought her a telescope last Christmas because she likes to look at the stars.”
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Nixon said she didn’t see the text message until close to 11 p.m., so she didn’t answer her.
That was the last the Vernon woman ever heard from her daughter.
Genereaux didn’t have a cell phone or ID on her, according to her mom.
Now RCMP are trying to put the pieces together of the last days before Traci went missing.
Genereaux was 4’11” (150 cm) tall, about 95lbs (42kg) and had brown hair and blue eyes.
Police said she was last seen around the 24 Avenue area of Vernon, known as the “Red Light District,” talking to someone in a white van.
She went by the names Trisha and Rae-leigh Bronwyn, which her mom said was her street name.
“The last few years she’s been doing the street life,” Nixon said. “She was addicted to heroin.”
“She’s been trying to get clean but we have an agreement that she couldn’t come into my house until she went to rehab because of theft but I managed the motel where I was at work two weeks out of the month anyways so she stayed with me there so that she could do laundry and things like that.”
A car accident on Dec. 21 caused a back injury that left Traci further addicted to heroin because of the pain, according to Nixon.
She would sell sexual services, said Nixon in order to buy drugs, Nixon said.
“She wanted out,” she added.
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Genereaux’s mom said she tried to arrange rehab many times, but couldn’t force her teenage daughter to do anything.
Nixon’s last attempt became an eerie precursor for Traci’s ultimate fate.
“I was trying to get her to agree to go to a farm in the middle of nowhere where she can’t escape,” Nixon told Global News.
“She just didn’t want to go alone … I had to go with her but I couldn’t.”
No charges have been laid in connection with Genereaux’s death.
An autopsy is said to have been completed but the results are not being released, according to RCMP.
Police continue their search of the farm on Salmon River Road.
It is unclear how many remains have been discovered.
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