WEYBURN — RCMP have released the name of the woman who died Sept. 12 in a highway shooting near Weyburn.
Her name is Tanya Myers, age 44. RCMP say the family is sharing an appeal to anyone who has information about this tragedy.
RCMP have released a statement from Myers’ family and it reads as follows:
“Tanya was an amazing energy healer and animal lover with a special fondness for cats.
“She was the best mom to her nine cats. She rarely left home because she had an extensive care routine for her kitties. So this day out of town was rare for her and related to her interest in energy healing and shopping for her cats.
“We are all in shock and disbelief and the loss of Tanya leaves a giant gaping hole in our lives and her cat’s lives. We’re all wondering where their mom has gone. She did not have anything to do with the way she left home.
“She kept to herself and looked after her fur babies. To the person or persons responsible, please grow a conscience and take responsibility for your actions. Tanya deserves justice and her family deserves answers.”
The family is also requesting privacy at this time.
The shooting incident was reported shortly after 8 p.m. on Sept. 12. Myers was one of two people travelling in a black SUV. RCMP also reported on Sunday that a white truck may have been travelling ahead of the black SUV and was parked alongside Highway 39 around the time of the shooting.
As for the status of the investigation, there is no new information to report, according to RCMP.
Supt. Joshua Graham, officer in charge of Saskatchewan RCMP Major Crimes, confirmed the investigation continues.
“The investigation is ongoing. It’s active with any death investigation. There’s lots of ground to cover particularly in terms of physical searches. What we’ve been working on interviewing witnesses and a number of other investigative tasks so the investigators are still very much actively working on this case.”
He said there is no new information in terms of identification of a suspect or where the shots came from. Graham said investigators are “still actively working on that and anything to do with forensic evaluation of the evidence that we’ve collected that simply takes time.”
He said they have enlisted ballistic experts and firearm experts in relation to the firearm potentially that’s been used here. Graham has also confirmed that the “autopsy has been completed and the victim did die of a gunshot wound.”
“So investigators are still following up on that aspect of it but no suspect has been identified, and I think really the information and releasing the identity of our victim is the purpose of that to forward the investigation so that you know the person who or persons that’s responsible for having fired that shot knows the effect and the result you know that’s really been felt by the family.”
As for the initial report that the shooting was considered random, Graham provided some clarity.
“So it’s it’s not necessarily random and although we don’t necessarily think it’s targeted either — it could be accidental, it could be, you know, maybe an overshot of somebody shooting at something like a target an animal something like that. And at this time we just don’t know, but I think based on the fact that now we’ve uncovered that there’s been two vehicles shot in the same instance, and I think that’s something important to clarify.”
As for the two vehicles that were fired upon, Graham said these were not “two separate incidents based on the new information that we provided —- it’s one incident. We can verify that the two vehicles were travelling in close proximity to them and it matches up kind of what we’ve been told through witness evidence as well.”
Graham was also asked about a separate incident regarding the potential impersonation of a police officer in which an arrest has been made. Graham confirmed that individual has been ruled out as a suspect.
In terms of information from the public, Graham said that specifically “we’re looking for any reports that people may think are information that is related to potentially you know things that happened that night. Maybe they saw something or perhaps maybe they are checking for example their rim cameras or maybe people have a video in their vehicles as they’re driving. Maybe they travelled that road.”
“So one thing that the community in Weyburn area may see is posters up with a QR code asking for that kind of video surveillance if people think that maybe they have something that’s been captured, so I would say if if people think that they have make sure that they capture that video because I’m sure a lot of people have uncovered sometimes that stuff rewrites itself and we lose that. So I would say certainly if you think that it could be related, save it, contact the RCMP at 310-RCMP, and we can make that determination.
“In general, I think you know just everybody certainly knows something when they think something’s off or suspicious that’s when to contact us obviously we don’t want to alarm people or necessarily you know have a flood of information that may be unrelated but again that that’s something we just trust our the public knows you know if they see something they’ll say something.”
