Viola Isabella PANACHEESE Missing Person Case

Viola Isabella

PANACHEESE

77

42

62 inches

62 inches

119 lbs

119 lbs

Indigenous

Female

Viola Isabella Panacheese, a 42-year-old mother of four from the Mishkeegogamang First Nation, was visiting her daughters and granddaughters in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, in the summer of 1991. On the evening of August 18, 1991, she went out with some friends and was never heard from again. At the time of her disappearance, Viola was living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was navigating personal challenges, including an on-again, off-again relationship and a recent cancer diagnosis. She was last seen that night walking along Lakeshore Avenue in Sioux Lookout. Another police report mentioned she was last seen at approximately 10:00 a.m. at the west end of the CN railway crossing in the town. She was a woman of Indigenous heritage with brown eyes and long, straight black hair. She stood 5’2” tall and weighed around 120 pounds. Distinctive features included the initials "VG" tattooed on her left hand and a significant burn scar that ran from her knee to her ankle on her right leg. The night she vanished, she was wearing a plaid shirt under a black spring jacket, blue jeans, and black "Chinese"-style slippers. While she usually wore eyeglasses, she did not have them with her when she disappeared. In the initial weeks following the report of her disappearance, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) conducted extensive searches of the area, utilizing canine units and helicopters, but found no trace of her. As time stretched into years, communication from the police to the family reportedly became less frequent. A deeply troubling development in the case emerged several years later when Viola's oldest daughter, Lilly Southwind, tried to retrieve the family photographs she had given to the police for the investigation. After persistent inquiries, she was informed that her mother's original case file had been lost and may have been destroyed. This loss was devastating to the family, as it included original photos and initial witness statements. The OPP has since attempted to reconstruct the case file, but Southwind has expressed that valuable time and information have been lost forever, as some of the people initially interviewed have since passed away. The rebuilt file is reportedly now held in a vault at the OPP headquarters in Orillia, far from the community where Viola disappeared. The disappearance of Viola Isabella Panacheese remains an open and unresolved missing persons case. For over three decades, her family has been left without answers, grappling not only with the pain of her absence but also with the knowledge that the initial police investigation was compromised by the loss of her case file. This situation has highlighted systemic issues and has been raised at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls as an example of the difficulties families face in their search for justice and closure.

Jacket Black, Spring jacket Pants Blue, Jeans Shirt Blue, Purple, Lavender, Mauve, plaid Shoes Black, "Chinese" style slippers Scar Right Shin, burn scar from knee to ankle

Aug 18, 1991

Sioux Lookout

Ontario

Sioux Lookout OPP OPP ONCMPUR ; 1-705-330-4144;

Ontario

[email protected]

1-877-934-6363

1-877-934-6363

Law Enforcement

RM05022815

Sioux Lookout OPP OPP ONCMPUR ; 1-705-330-4144;

Black

Brown

Brown

Build: Slender/Thin; Hair details: Straight, Long

No