EARLY LIFE:
Viola Isabella Panacheese was born on January 24, 1949. From Mishkeegogamang First Nation in northern Ontario, Canada, she was the mother of four children – Candace, Bruce, Lilly and Virginia – and was living in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In the lead-up to her disappearance, Viola was in an on-again, off-again relationship with her partner, who was employed as a miner. The stress of this was further compounded by a cancer diagnosis.
DISAPPEARANCE:
Viola went missing from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, on August 18, 1991, during a visit with her daughters and granddaughters. According to the former, she’d gone out with a few friends that evening and never returned. The last known sighting of her was that night, walking along Lakeshore Avenue.
SEARCH:
Viola’s disappearance is currently being investigated by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). In the weeks following the missing persons report being filed, investigators conducted several searches with the assistance of canines and helicopters.
Outside of the initial search effort, few details have been made public regarding the status of the investigation.
The last update came in December 2017, when Lilly spoke before the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Inquiry stop in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She told the tribunal that, several years after her mother went missing, she’d tried to collect photographs she and the family had given to police during the early stages of the investigation, only to be told that not only was Viola’s file lost, but that it “may have gone into the burn pile.”
While the OPP has since attempted to rebuild the case file, Lilly says it’s too late, as some of the individuals who’d been interviewed back in 1991 have since died.
DETAILS:
Viola Isabella Panacheese went missing from Sioux Lookout, Ontario, on the evening of August 18, 1991. She was 5’2″, weighed 120 pounds, and had brown eyes and long, straight black hair. Along with the initials “VG” tattooed on her left hand, she has a noticeable burn scar on her right leg, which stretches from her knee, down to her ankle.
At the time of her disappearance, Viola was wearing a plaid shirt beneath a black spring jacket, blue jeans, socks and what have been described as “Chinese”-style slippers. While she typically wore glasses, she didn’t have them on her at the time.
CASE CONTACT INFORMATION:
Viola’s case is currently classified as a missing persons investigation.
Anyone with information regarding the missing woman’s whereabouts or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is asked to contact the Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies/Remains Unit of the OPP at +1 (877) 934-6363 or (705) 330-4144.
Image Credit: CBC
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