Mary Ann Birmingham was a 15-year-old Inuk girl living in what is now Iqaluit, Nunavut, when she was killed in late May 1986. Family accounts date the death to May 26, while RCMP records list her remains as found at the family home, 109C near the beach area, on May 28. Mary Ann had been stabbed and subjected to additional violence; her sister Barbara Sevigny discovered the body after returning from Montreal and entering the locked house through a window. The family had been coping with a separate tragedy at the time: their young brother was critically ill with leukemia and died shortly afterward.

The killing alarmed the small community and an initial investigation did not produce enough evidence to charge anyone. A local reward was offered and widely publicized, but the case stalled. Authorities charged Jopey Atsiqtaq during the original inquiry; after a preliminary hearing a territorial court judge dismissed that murder charge for insufficient evidence. Atsiqtaq later admitted two other 1986 killings and was convicted of those murders, but denied killing Mary Ann.

In September 2024 Atsiqtaq was again arrested and charged with Mary Ann’s murder. As of the latest reporting he remains accused but not convicted and the charge is pending in court. If anyone knew Mary Ann, lived in Iqaluit in 1986, or has information about that spring, please share what can help the investigation.