Moira Louise Erb
Moira Louise Erb
Moira Erb was born Marilyn Latender at the Fort Alexander First Nation in Manitoba; she was taken away from her birth mother by a social service agency when she was one year old. Her sister Patsy Fontaine remembered being 7 years old in 1978 and carrying her baby sister out to the car that would take her to a foster family. She did not see Moira Erb again until they were reunited about twenty years later.
Just before she turned two, Moira Erb was adopted into a farm family who had two children of their own. She ran away from home at the age of 16. She passed through a series of youth centers and group homes before ending up living on the streets in Vancouver, where she got involved with illegal drugs and the sex trade. She eventually had a child and later got married. The marriage did not work out. When she left her husband, she started using heavy drugs again. She entered into a relationship with a man with whom she had two sons. This relationship also did not work out and Moira returned to the sex trade. She eventually returned to Manitoba.
A health worker who befriended Moira Erb in Winnipeg described her as “funny, smart, honest and generous.” She loved her children and would try to send them a small amount of money whenever she could. Erb’s friend said that her heart was breaking because she couldn’t be a parent to her children all of the time. However, Moira Erb was also very sick. She had tested positive for HIV/AIDS but her drug addictions were interfering with her taking her medications.
In June, 2003, Moira Erb’s daughter came to Winnipeg for a visit and stayed with Erb’s father at his farm. Her two sons were also brought to the farm for a brief visit that month. Erb made a promise to get off drugs so that she could see her children more often. She ended up staying off drugs for the month of July and told a friend that she was applying to go back to school. Moira Erb went missing on August 2, 2003. She told her roommate that she was going to go next door. Then she apparently asked a neighbour to take her downtown. Her roommate looked for her but couldn’t find anyone who had seen her. Erb’s roommate reported her missing a week later.
On September 17, 2003, Moira Erb’s badly decomposed remains were found in a rural area north of the Winnipeg airport near train tracks. The police concluded that her injuries were consistent with being struck by a train. Police do not suspect foul play.
Patsy Lafontaine does not believe that is how it happened. Moira Erb’s father also has his doubts. Both point to the isolated location. Both point to the fact that Erb’s body was found without any shoes. Both ask: Who took her there? Why? What did they do to her?
Moira Erb’s father last had a brief phone message from the RCMP in late January 2004 indicating the investigation was ongoing but providing no updates. Patsy Lafontaine has never heard from the police. Knowing some of the rough neighbourhoods her sister sometimes worked in Patsy Lafontaine has gone to those places herself, and “sat at the corner” to ask questions. She does not believe the police have followed those same leads. In September 2004 the RCMP informed Amnesty International that the case had been “meticulously investigated” and the conclusion reached was that “Ms. Erb died tragically as the result of being struck by a train.” The family has no details of the specific findings of any such investigation and continues to have unanswered questions about Moira Erb’s death.
Updated: 29 September 2009