Nearly eight years after 18-year-old Colton Crowshoe’s body was pulled from a retention pond in northeast Calgary, his family continues to search for answers.
“He was very compassionate. He was thoughtful and mostly — hilarious,” his cousin Hayley Starlight said.
Crowshoe was last seen not far from his home, leaving a house party in the community of Abbeydale on July 4, 2014. After not hearing from him for a couple of days, his loved ones became increasingly worried.
“He went to a party but never came back and that’s really out of character for him to not check in, to not phone or call,” Starlight explained. “He knew it was important to stay in contact with his dad and suddenly there was silence for two days.”
Crowshoe’s family turned to the police and media for help but Starlight said initially his disappearance was not taken seriously.
“We were scouring fields, looking through abandoned houses, abandoned barns. We were posting his pictures in every district of the city, all on our own.
“For three weeks, there was no help from anybody. The police didn’t help us, the media didn’t help us.”
“What was frustrating was that he only had us, the family. He only had us to look for him.”
On July 24, 2014, Crowshoe’s body was found in a retention pond in northeast Calgary, just days after police started searching for the missing man.
Years later, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) gave a scathing review of how the Calgary Police Service (CPS) first handled the case, however no officers were charged following allegations of racism and profiling.
“I can’t tell you the amount of credit I give this family,” said former ASIRT executive director Susan Hughson in a 2017 news conference.
“The difficulty in this case, were (that) many small errors ended up in catastrophic failure to investigate.”
In the wake of Crowshoe’s death CPS said it made several changes, including adding clearer guidelines for frontline officers and investigators and strengthening policy around communicating with family members of missing people.
These actions were acknowledged by Crowshoe’s family.
“They are making a step forward for change so I feel like there is a positive step forward in the relationship with the police,” Starlight explained.
Now, as the anniversary of Colton’s death approaches, Calgary police are once again asking for the public’s help to find the person or people responsible.
“No matter how much time has passed since an incident, we remain committed to finding closure for a victim’s family,” said CPS homicide unit Staff Sgt. Sean Gregson in a news release on Wednesday. “As time passes, allegiances can change and people may recall details they haven’t yet talked to police about.”
“People may assume we are aware of certain details but we encourage anyone who has information to contact us, regardless of how insignificant they think their information is.”
Starlight said she believes, even all these years later, that Crowshoe’s killer will be caught and she and her family will finally have the answers they need.
“Our family is not going to give up. Our family will not give up looking for justice for Colton.”