Search continues for Tamra Keepness 15 years later

Joyce Keepness hasn’t celebrated her birthday since July 5, 2004.

That’s the day her great-niece, Tamra Keepness, went missing from her Ottawa Street home in Regina. Since then, it has been a mystery as to where she went.

Joyce’s birthday falls on July 6, but she doesn’t see a point in marking the day.

“I don’t feel I should be celebrating,” she said. “You don’t even feel like having a birthday.”

Joyce Keepness, Tamra’s great aunt, shares a few words on the 15th anniversary of the girl’s disappearance. #yqr pic.twitter.com/8o8hA4dRNQ

— Jessie Anton (@jessieanton_) July 5, 2019

On Friday, a barbecue was held in Tamra Keepness’ honour, just a few blocks away from where the then-five-year-old went missing exactly 15 years earlier.

Looking on at the girl’s supporters gathered in Core Community Park more than a decade later, Joyce said it’s comforting to see.

“It’s good to know that people haven’t forgotten — that there’s a lot of love out there for the family,” she explained. “We appreciate that.”

Joyce was a part of the original search party in the summer that Keepness went missing. The great-aunt said she’ll never forget the tears that streamed down her face as she and others searched from dawn until dark for the little girl.

“Any tip we got, we were there searching,” Joyce remembered. “There were times we’d be crying, but there was always one (person) strong enough to keep us going.”

And after all these years, Joyce said she hasn’t stopped looking for Tamra, who would now be 20 years old.

“Still, not a day goes by that something happens where you see something and it all comes back,” she said in between pauses.

Tamra Keepness went missing at five years old from her Ottawa Street home in Regina on July 5, 2004. (Regina Police Service)

According to Regina Police Chief Evan Bray, tips continue to come in monthly regarding Keepness’ disappearance.

“We investigate each piece of information, each tip that we get, thoroughly — and yet none of those have yielded any sort of new information that helps us understand where Tamra is or what happened to her,” Bray explained.

Unlike other investigations — such as a break-in, for instance — Bray noted missing persons cases pose different challenges.

“(Typically) you’d go to the place where the incident happened and then you’d start your investigation from there,” he said. “With a missing person, you don’t really know where that is.

“We know when and where Tamra was last seen, but we don’t have a location to start from or a person to start with. That can be tricky and it has proven tricky in this case.”

Bray said the police continue to work closely with the family members who were with her at the time of her disappearance. But there’s an added challenge: Russell Sheepskin, who was known to be in the house the night Keepness vanished, is dead.

“Although they might have been interviewed more than once, if there was a piece of information that they were holding back, that piece of information is obviously lost now,” he explained. “It has been 15 years and we’re still searching for that one piece of information.”

However, Bray still maintains somebody knows something.

Joyce and most of Tamra’s family and supporters agree, saying they feel deep down that she’s alive somewhere.

“Someone knows where she is and what they’ve done with her. Come forward, let us know, please,” Joyce begged. “Whoever is holding her, whoever has her, bring her back to us — let us have the family whole once again.”