Police have identified the woman who was killed in a mysterious shooting on a Saskatchewan highway last week.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, RCMP identified the victim as 44-year-old Tanya Myers and read a public appeal from her family.
“We’re all in shock and disbelief, and the loss of Tanya leaves a giant, gaping hole in our lives, and her cats’ lives, who are all wondering where their mom has gone,” the family wrote, noting Myers rarely left home because she cared for nine cats.
On Friday, Myers and another woman were driving toward Weyburn, Sask., on Highway 39 in a Ford Explorer around 8 p.m. CST when Myers, who was in the passenger seat, was fatally hit by a bullet, according to RCMP.
At the time of the shooting, the two women were approximately three kilometres northwest of Weyburn, near the Richardson Pioneer and Viterra grain terminals and elevators, police said.
“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 statement continued.
An inspector with the RCMP’s major crimes unit told reporters at a news conference Saturday that their investigation indicated someone shot the Ford Explorer, striking the passenger, and the shooting appeared to be random.
On Tuesday, RCMP Supt. Joshua Graham clarified that language.
“It’s not necessarily random, although we don’t necessarily think it’s targeted either. It could be,” Graham said. “It could be accidental. It could be maybe an overshot of someone shooting at something, maybe an animal, a target.”
On Saturday, police got a report from a driver who had also been travelling along Highway 39 in an SUV the night before. The driver reported hearing “two pops” of what sounded like rocks hitting their windshield, according to RCMP. There was no apparent damage to the SUV’s windows.
Investigators said the driver noticed a flat tire Saturday. They did not know if there was any connection to the woman who was shot the night before, but decided to report it due to the timing, police said.
RCMP’s forensic team examined the SUV tire Monday and determined it had been shot.
Investigators also confirmed the driver of the SUV was close to the Ford Explorer at the time of the shooting, eventually passing it and continuing toward Weyburn after the incident, according to RCMP.
The driver was not initially aware of the incident involving the Ford Explorer and did not know the occupants, police said.
RCMP’s major crimes unit is asking the public for any security footage that might have captured the shooting. They ask anyone with buildings or homes on Highway 39 and Highway 13 to check any security footage from Friday night between 7:45 and 8:30 p.m. CST.
They are also asking anyone who was in the area during that time to contact them.
“Maybe you were hunting or target shooting, or perhaps you were with or know someone who was,” the Monday news release said.
Graham urged the public to remain vigilant, saying the shooting was disturbing whether it was “careless, reckless, or even intended.”
When asked what he’d say to the person responsible, Graham said there’s a family that suffered a terrible loss and they deserve to have closure.
“Whether that is accidental, intentional, whether they knew about it or not, at the end of the day we need to account and find out the truth as to what happened.”
