Just days after her 21st birthday, members of the RCMP were in Estevan to continue their investigation into the disappearance of Courtney Struble.
The members of the RCMP's Historical Case Unit were in Estevan to interview people with information on Courtney's disappearance in 2004.
Cpl. Rob Zentner of the HCU said investigators have been in Estevan over the last several months and are currently in what he described as the interview process.
"When that is going to end just totally depends on how quickly we are able to find all the people we need to talk to," said Zentner. "A lot of the people have lives and have moved on from where they were back in the past and so we have a bit of trouble tracking down some of the people that we need to speak with, which is obviously taking this phase of the investigation longer to complete. But we are definitely a lot further ahead than we were (earlier this year)."
Courtney has been missing since the early morning hours of July 9, 2004 when she was last seen on the city's western outskirts. Courtney and friends were watching a movie at the Estevan Veterinary Clinic when the then 13-year-old decided to walk home.
Initially it was believed that Courtney had run away and the file was long treated as a missing person's case. However the RCMP, who joined the investigation in 2009, announced earlier this year they are now treating the case as a homicide.
Zentner said the RCMP are dedicating a considerable amount of resources towards finding the individual or individuals responsible for Courtney's death. As many as eight officers have been involved with the investigation at some time while four officers were in the city over the weekend to conduct interviews.
"It just depends on what the specific task is. In this situation, we had about 12 people to speak with," said Zentner who noted their interviews have often led them to other people with applicable information and some who didn't.
"As we narrow down and get to the bottom of our primary list, they give us a whole bunch of additional names. Some are people that have possibly been interviewed in the past by the Estevan Police Service or the Missing Children's Society of Canada or people that have never been interviewed; their name has never come up.
"Sometimes a person's name comes up and we sit down and talk to them and they have absolutely no information or no knowledge. Sometimes we interview people that have no relevant information, but of course we never know what they have to say until we sit down and speak with them."
Although Zentner said the RCMP remain open to all possibilities, they do have a theory on what might have happened to Courtney and have been able to confirm some aspects of that theory and eliminate other parts through their investigative work.
"Every interview we have conducted, we have learned something new. That new bit of information either confirms or supports potential information that we have had in the past, or in some cases it has caused us to look in a few different directions as well," he said.
"We believe she was the victim of a homicide and we are continuing to investigate her disappearance like that. As for are we getting any closer to arresting anybody or are we getting closer to charges, right now it is a little too early to say that.
"Some of our investigations take years and years and years to do. If I could bring this to a conclusion before Christmas I would be one of the happiest guys in the province. Realistically that is not going to happen. Our timetable is solely dependent on the co-operation from the people that we are interviewing. If everybody is 100 per cent co-operative and there are no issues then we breeze through that portion very quickly. If people are reluctant or there are other issues we have to deal with, that really slows things down and bogs things down.
"We do think we know what happened but knowing what happened and being able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt in court are two separate things. The first goal is to find out what happened and how do we get the evidence that proves what we know to stand up in court or to lead us to the location of her body."
Zentner said while they are obviously keen on bringing the people responsible for Courtney's death to justice, they also want to bring some closure for her family and friends.
"It was Courtney's birthday just the other day (Nov. 22) and I talked to her mom. It is on their mind every single day. Until a conclusion is brought out, they wonder what happened or when are they are ever going to find their daughter. We are trying to do things as quickly as possible, but we have to do things methodically and make sure we don't miss anything as well."
