CANADA Canada - Ila Oman, 43, Dene Village, MB, 25 May 1971

It was one of Manitoba's most brutal homicides of its time. It haunts the living and, some say, the dead. Yet 45 years later, the murder of Ila Oman remains unsolved.

In 1971, the 43-year-old wife and stepmother was raped and fatally beaten in the notoriously tragic Dene Village

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It's too painful to think about, her niece explains. Bernice Thorassie wants to change that.

Oman was her great-aunt. She helped raise Thorassie as a child. Thorassie recalls her laugh. Her light brown skin. Her dark brown eyes. Her lipstick. She vividly recalls the lipstick.

"She was so beautiful, she laughed a lot," Thorassie said. "But whenever I think of her, I always remember the bright red lipstick she wore."

But Thorassie also wants to talk about her death.

Here is what is known.

It was May 25, 1971. She was raped, some say by locals in nearby Churchill — where Oman lived — who then drove her and dumped her in Dene Village. Others say she was dragged into a home in Dene Village and raped there.

She was also viciously beaten. Some say beforehand. Others say afterwards.

The rest of the country was indifferent to the crime. A short newspaper clipping at the time referred to Oman's rape/murder simply as an "incident."
Plenty of whispers

Fast-forward to the present day. Oman's death is still widely unknown; you won't find her story on any unsolved crimes websites or cold case profiles. No obituary was filed, there is no gravestone with her name on it.

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It's been 45 years since Ila Oman was murdered in the Dene Village outside Churchill, Man. But to this day, no one knows who sexually assaulted her. No one knows who physically attacked her. And no one knows which came first.

In fact, few people know Ila Oman even existed, let alone died a brutal death.

"It was like no one really cared. It was like this was almost normal," recalled Nancy Powderhorn, who was a child at the time of the incident.

"The reason why I remember it so vivid and clear is because we had to give up our bed when they hauled her in our house, like when she got beaten up. I don't know where that took place but … our parents told us we had to move from our beds so this lady could sleep there. That's how I remember so clearly."

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Night Spirits: The Story of the Relocation of the Sayisi Dene
By Ila Bussidor, Ustun Bilgen-Reinart

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