Mother of woman found dead at Sask. golf course wants answers from RCMP

The mother of a woman found dead in northeastern Saskatchewan is urging the RCMP to do all it can in its investigation. 

According to an RCMP media release, Tristin Jobb was found in medical distress at Phantom Lake Golf Club in Creighton, Sask. on Oct. 6.

Jobb was pronounced dead at the scene when paramedics arrived. 

Her mother Val Charlette didn't want to believe it was her daughter. 

"We all had that hope that they made a mistake. That it wasn't her," Charlette said. 

Charlette is a member of Mathias Colomb Cree Nation in northern Manitoba and currently lives in The Pas, Man. She said RCMP officers repeatedly tried to discourage her from going to the hospital to identify Jobb, and acted "indifferent" towards the investigation throughout. 

"They tried really hard to deter me from going in to see if it was really her," Charlette said about her initial phone conversation with RCMP officers.  "And they told me, 'well, we'll see what we can work out over here on this end.’ "

After identifying some of the tattoos on Jobb's body, officers were satisfied they knew her identity and again told Charlette not to make the trip. 

When Charlette was finally allowed to see her daughter, she immediately noticed bruising and scrapes all over her face.

I said she was beat up. I could obviously see that someone hurt her," Charlette said. "And they said, 'No, we're not sure ... it doesn't look like she died from anything traumatic.' "

Charlette was told Jobb was found inside a shelter on the golf course. Charlette said Jobb's hair was matted with plenty of leaves in it, which she thought was suspicious because there was only gravel in the area she was found. 

RCMP officers and the coroner at the hospital said she likely died of exposure or a suicide attempt. 

Charlette disagrees. She wants the RCMP to investigate her death as suspicious. 

 "She was so loved by all of us," Charlette said. 

Charlette says Jobb was hanging out at a friends house in nearby Flin Flon, but may have attempted to see another friend in Creighton. 

Jobb lived in Nipawin previously, but was the victim of a serious assault and moved in with her mother in The Pas three months ago to feel safer. 

Charlette works as a mental health therapist in Pukatawagan, Man., where she's flown in and out of each week.

Charlette was out of contact with Jobb throughout the week leading up to her death.

She said officers told her Jobb was seen walking in the area on Oct. 5 and "appeared fine."

Officers also told her Jobb was seen trying to get into the Phantom Lake clubhouse around 6 p.m. but was told to leave because there was a meeting going on. She also tried to get into the nearby home of the maintenance manager and was again told to leave. No one called the police for help. 

"And I said, 'Well, did he offer her a ride back into town? Or were the RCMP, like, 911 called to come and get her? Was she offered a taxi?"

Charlette said her daughter struggled with substance use disorder, an alcohol addiction, as well as anxiety and depression. 

Charlette urges anyone with information about her daughter’s death to reach out to the Creighton RCMP detachment or Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, a non-profit political advocacy group. 

She also wants to know why it took the RCMP eight days to issue a media release asking for information. She said Jobb wasn't suicidal, and she isn't accepting exposure as the cause of death. 

"My girl is going to have a voice," Charlette said. 

"I don't want her to be part of the missing and murdered Indigenous women. I see people suffering -- families and communities suffering because of this.

“Because my daughter is Indigenous, It doesn't mean that what happened, her case, just gets swept under the rug."