Duluth Still in Search of Sheila St. Clair, Six Years Later

Six years ago, the Duluth Police Department received a missing persons report of 54 year old Sheila St. Clair, today, they are still looking for her.

DULUTH, Minn. — Sheila St. Clair was last seen in the Central Hillside neighborhood in August of 2015, a month later she was reported missing. This case is still active six years later, and the Duluth Police Department along with national advocates are still trying tirelessly to get her home.

Across the state of Minnesota, the unknown numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women has been called a crisis, and the St. Clair case in Duluth has served as this reminder over the past years.

“Heavy on my heart to be here, and we truly miss Sheila, she was a mother, aunt, sister, grandmother, she’s somebody’s daughter and we have way too many murdered and missing indigenous women and men in native country,” Shawn Carr, Advocate from ‘Idle No More’ said.

The Duluth Police Department was recognized at the press conference for their work on this case, and Police Chief Mike Tusken commented on their unwavering attempts to find Sheila.

“Please know that over these last 6 years, every single lead that’s come in to our organization has been investigated to its end, and we will continue to do so, we’re committed to bringing Sheila home,” Tusken said.

One speaker commented on media coverage of these cases saying indigenous people don’t get the coverage they deserve, which makes it harder for them to be found. She compared it to one of the most recent national stories.

“We can see that recently with the case of Gabby, look how fast she was found because it was national news, imagine if every indigenous women or person made the news nationally, how much of a difference that could make for our families and for our women, and men, and boys and girl and two spirits that go missing,” Jessica Gisagaakoons Smith, National Advocate for Sovereign Bodies Institute, said.

The police department is taking an extra step to acquire more information regarding the case, “we are now in the process of securing a reward for information leading to finding Sheila and or holding those responsible for her disappearance accountable,” Tusken said.

More information on that reward will be released at a later date.

Many of the speakers believes somebody knows something, and although police have not yet identified any suspect in the case, they urge someone to come forward so they can bring her home safely, or bring the family some type of closure.