Friends and family of slain Beaumont mother Treasa Lynn Oberly, who Alberta RCMP say was found dead on Monday, are planning a vigil to show their love and support for her.
Family friend Tracey McCleave is organizing the public memorial, which she says “is open to all.”
It will take place on Aug. 6 and 3 p.m. at Saint Vital Church in Beaumont, Alta.
McCleave was originally helping organize civilian searches for Oberly after she disappeared, which came to an abrupt halt when RCMP told them investigators had found the 40-year-old’s body, just days before her 41st birthday.
“As a mother, and a grandmother, as a woman, it absolutely struck a chord with me,” McCleave said.
“It’s also a community tragedy.”
Oberly’s family lives south of the Canada-U.S. border in Delaware, but will be taking part in the vigil for their loved one.
McCleave is doing everything she can to assist them, explaining “they’ve felt a sense of helplessness being so far away.”
Despite the distance, McCleave says Oberly’s family has felt the community support from Beaumont and is appreciative of it.
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Oberly was a single mother and leaves behind a three-year-old son who has been described as Oberly’s whole world.
“They want everyone to be sure how much she loved her son, and how much he meant to her,” McCleave said, reading from a statement provided by Oberly’s family.
“She lived and breathed for that boy. He would never have wanted for anything in life.”
More details about the vigil are still being ironed out and will be updated on this Facebook page honouring Oberly.
“She deserves to have a big crowd at the vigil as she had the biggest heart and the purest soul,” McCleave said, paraphrasing what Oberly’s family had told her. “She was very shy — an introverted person … But she was a big presence in the people’s lives who knew her.”
McCleave said the vigil will feature “gifts, there will be prayer, there will be songs, there will be live music and her best friends will be speaking.”
McCleave hopes many people come out to show their support for Oberly.
“So she’s not forgotten, so it’s not just another story. To make her real, and her family real, so people aren’t just reading it on Facebook. They get to see her family and understand the depths of her beauty.”
Oberly was reported missing on July 16, two days after friends and family last saw her at her Beaumont home.
Police found her body July 24. Oberly’s boyfriend and the father of her child, 43-year-old Kenneth Joseph Skelly, has since been charged with second-degree murder in her death.
RCMP told Global News “police have dealt with him and her in the past,” referring to Skelly and Oberly.
Court records show that in August 2020 Skelly was charged with assaulting Oberly.
The documents allege he hurt her, threatened her life, choked, strangled or suffocated her and threatened her with a baseball bat.
Those charges, however, were stayed by the Crown. A trial never went ahead.
RCMP said Skelly’s father, 69-year-old Joseph Donald Skelly, was also arrested and charged with causing indignity to a dead body in connection with Oberly’s death.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Oberly’s mother with travel costs, to care for her son and to cover funeral costs.