I've lived in Vancouver's Lower Mainland for the last 14 and a half years. Violent crime here is pretty much a daily part of the news. Of late there have been youths fatally stabbing other youths outside of Skytrain Stations, fatal hit and runs and targeted gang shootings, not the least of which saw six people, including two innocent bystanders, perish. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the many missing women from Vancouver's downtown east side who were murdered by convicted killer Robert Willy Pickton. One would expect me to have become quite thick skinned and jaded.

Maybe about Vancouver, but not about home.

Home for me will always be a little town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia called Bridgewater. I spent the first 23 years of my life there. My parents still live there, in the same house. Most of who I am today came from experiences I had there good and bad, but mostly good. I still miss the town and the people there after all these years. Perhaps sometimes I idealize what it was like to live there, but all in all it is a nice, slow paced and quiet little town.

Bridgewater has been in the news lately. I always follow along when I hear about things happening there and this time it was no different except today the news was national. So much so that it made our local news radio: News1130


Three weeks ago a 12 year old girl named Karissa Boudreau went missing. At first it appeared Karissa had run away after an argument with her mother, but there was no sign of her until last weekend when the remains of "a young female" were found along the banks of the LaHave River just a scant few hundred yards from the house I grew up in. Right away people speculated it was Karissa, but prayed it wasn't. I was one of them.

It was strange seeing images on the news of a place I used to play and brook I used to fish trout (unsuccessfully) on being shown as a the site of such a tragedy. There used to be an office on the spot belonging to Irving Oil who's large oil tanks were across the street and a place we used to explore when no one was looking.

This morning at a police press conference held in Chester, because Bridgewater's Police Station is too small our worst fears were confirmed, and then some:


We all knew it had to be her. It couldn't have been anyone else. No one else was missing in the small town. But, murder?

I can only recall two other murder cases from there my entire life. One was a stabbing in 1993 of a gentleman I used to serve coffee to at the Candy Centre by a guy I played ball hockey with. Yes the town is that small. The other was the shooting death and burning in a fire of a couple in Dayspring, just outside of town. The son was charged but not convicted. As far as I know that one is still open. I can't remember or find anything else on the case, it was in the 80's.



I'm hoping that the Bridgewater Police (press releases), not being overly versed in this kind of investigation are getting the help they need from the R.C.M.P. It appears they are. I feel kind of sorry for Sgt Collyer he looked overwhelmed and out of his depth fielding questions from sometimes seemingly unintelligent yet persistent press core at the news conference. I would not want to be in his shoes. People, I'm sure, are expecting a swift resolution to this case and I'm sure the town police, many of whom were members when I was growing up, are feeling the pressure. Good luck to them.

The town must be reeling from this news. I'm way out west and feeling it. I can't even begin to imagine what Karissa's friends, family and neighbors are feeling. This facebook group administered by women from Bridgewater is a great place to post your feelings and sympathies.

To Karissa's family, friends and everyone else who loved and prayed for her, we're hoping that you soon find peace in this terrible time.


Bridgewater and it's people will rally around one another and come though this. It's what small towns do, at least the one I come from.