No Official Link Between Murder and Missing Woman Case

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

North District Senior Media Relations Officer, Corporal Dan Moskaluk

Prince George, B.C. -  With RCMP confirming over the weekend that the missing persons case of 35-year-old Cynthia Maas has turned to a murder investigation, police are issuing an advisory to the general public to remain vigilant as investigators search for her killer.

Maas was last seen on September 10th in the area of 19th Avenue and Juniper Street.  She was reported missing by family and friends on September 23rd.  Although the Prince George woman is reported to have lived a high risk lifestyle, both the Maas family and RCMP are urging people to focus on the fact she is a victim of murder. (click here for previous story)

RCMP put out a missing persons bulletin on Maas on October 1st, just one day after releasing official word that 23-year-old Natasha Lynn Montgomery was missing from our city.  Montgomery has not been heard from since August, when she was last seen in the Queensway area.

When asked at Saturday's news conference if the city's vulnerable are being targeted, Moskaluk would only say, "We would be wrong to not remind all sectors of the public, as well as you say, the more marginalized and vulnerable people that may, due to their lifestyle, be put in harm's way."

Moskaluk says both the Maas murder investigation and the Montgomery missing persons case are being handled by 30 to 40 officers in the Prince George General Investigation Section, but he says they're being looked at as seperate cases.  "However, with a great and close information-sharing process that is happening."

And he says there has been no connection to the missing and murdered women along the Highway of Tears at this point in time, although investigators have been in contact with the investigative unit handling those files. 

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