Homicide investigators are hoping to see a spike in calls to their tip line as they continue digging for answers into the killing of a 13-year-old girl in Burnaby’s Central Park.
READ MORE: No arrests 1 year after murder of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen
Marrisa Shen’s body was found in the early hours of July 19, 2017 seven hours after her parents reported her as missing. Investigators still believe her murder was random.
WATCH: One year after Marrisa Shen’s murder, still no arrest
Despite a thorough investigation which has included following up on more than 200 tips from the general public, reviewing over 1,000 hours of video and conducting more than 600 interviews, no arrests have been made.
Raw: IHIT release profile of person believed to have killed Marrisa Shen
On the one year anniversary of Shen’s murder, Cpl. Frank Jang with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) held a news conference urging anyone with information on the unsolved case to come forward.
“If you were here visiting last summer, perhaps just taking a stroll through Burnaby Central Park, or if you’re a resident in the area, perhaps you have cell phone video, dash cam video or you just saw something suspicious… please let this be the day that you come forward,” Jang said.
To highlight the importance of re-sharing the timeline of the homicide and an appeal for information, Jang shared the circumstances surrounding a tip received in April when investigators released a criminal profile of the person they believe is responsible.
“We had a caller who was overseas for several months and when they saw the stories that were aired on TV, they reached out to IHIT and came forward with information about how they were here at the park that day she was murdered… that statement proved to be important,” Jang said.
Jang said names are constantly being added and removed from a changing list of persons of interest, but there is no definite suspect in the investigation and there is no new information.
Investigators are working morning to night to try and solve the case he said, adding that Shen hasn’t been forgotten from the public’s mind.
Jang read a statement from Shen’s family which said, in-part, “It’s difficult to express in words the pain of losing her in this terrible way.”
“We were supposed to see her grow up, but instead we have been deprived of the joy of having her in our lives and we are left with the thoughts of what could have been her life,” Shen’s family said in the statement.
The statement continued by describing Shen as a girl who loved life and had a loving family that cared for her deeply, and outlining her plans last summer to travel to China to see friends.
“But those plans never came… we think of her and her beautiful smile and miss her beyond words,” the family’s statement said.
Shen was last seen at a Tim Hortons near Metrotown and at Central Park around 6 p.m. on July 18.
Six months ago, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) launched a website, MarrisaShen.org, that included details of the investigation with all available video clips of Shen’s movements before she disappeared.
– With files from Jon Azpiri, Amy Judd, Estefania Duran and The Canadian Press
WATCH: Coverage of the Marrisa Shen murder on Globalnews.ca
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