RCMP Launch Large Murder Investigation

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Corporal Dan Moskaluk at news conference at Prince George RCMP Detachment

Prince George, B.C.-  Prince George RCMP have between 30 and 40 investigators working on the murder of 35-year-old Cynthia Frances Maas, but police are not directly linking her death to any of the other missing and murdered women in our region at this point in time.

Maas was reported missing by concerned family and friends back on September 23rd, her body was discovered near LC Gunn Park by a Police Service Dog Team on October 8th and RCMP confirmed the woman's death was a homicide yesterday.

At a news conference today, the RCMP's North District Senior Media Relations Officer, Corporal Dan Moskaluk, says details integral to the investigation -- like cause of death, whether the body had been moved, and if police have a suspect in mind -- are not being released to maintain the integrity of evidence being collected.

Moskaluk says the investigation, at this point, remains in the hands of the Prince George General Investigation Section.  He says those officers have been working closely and sharing information with both North District Major Crime Unit and the unit investigating the Highway of Tears.  But he says it's premature to talk of any links to other outstanding cases.

 "We are all sensitive to that fact that we have a large scale, high-profile historical investigation, such as the Highway of Tears investigation, that is led by the E PANA project team," says the corporal.  "In this case, at this point in time, as I said, the totality of the findings as this evolves will determine what the factors are and how they relate to other investigations."

But Moskaluk does say investigators will be looking at what is known to date on the murder of Jill Stuchenko, who's body was found in a gravel pit near Moore's Meadow almost one year ago.  And police efforts continue to generate information on the whereabouts of 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery, who was last in the Queensway area back in August.  All three women were reported to have been involved in high risk lifestyles. 

But Corporal Moskaluk passed on a message from the Maas family today, asking everyone to remain sensitive to the issue at-hand: that Cynthia Maas was the victim of murder.  Maas was a mother, a sister, an auntie and a daughter.  Moskaluk adds, "This is first and foremost what we are focusing on here. The facts as to how it happened and why it happened: that will be the totality of the investigation that will determine the causal factors of her death."

"There's nothing more that these investigators want -- and we that know that the community wants -- is to bring to justice the person or persons that are responsible for her death."

Moskaluk says, to date, the number of tips coming in from the public has been surprisingly low.  "Now that we have established that this incident is now a murder, we're hopeful that that will change."  He says somebody out there knows something and he's urging them to step forward.

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