Chelsea Poorman posters pulled down in Vancouver neighbourhood where her remains were found

People around Vancouver have been seen tearing down posters pleading for information about Chelsea Poorman — a missing 24-year-old Indigenous woman who was found dead outside a vacant home in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood last month.

One Instagram video shows a couple ripping down signs during a rally and march Saturday in the neighbourhood Chelsea’s body was found.

The event was held over the weekend as Chelsea’s mother Sheila Poorman and others left unsatisfied with the investigation and push for answers about what happened to her.

“We’re only asking for help,” Sheila said. “So why should it really bother people for us to put up a poster? There’s no harm in it. I don’t see why people are bothered by it. It’s upsetting.”

She emphasizes the posters were made to bring attention and closure for family and community who’ve been left unhappy with how the Vancouver police declared the case non-suspicious.

Related Article: Vancouver rally held for Chelsea Poorman in effort to ‘seek answers’

Saz Lambert tells CityNews a pair of her friends confronted a couple and filmed them tearing away posters.

Lambert admits she felt she needed to walk away from the incident “because I was already feeling very emotional.”

“I just felt as though it wasn’t really my place to fight with these white people as an Indigenous person.

“My friends who are not Indigenous did stand up and speak to these people. And ask them why they were doing what they were doing? And try to educate them on what was happening. But it did not really seem like they cared. They cared a little bit much more about the poles that were apparently vandalizing,” she explained.

 

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In the video posted online, the woman appearing to tear down signs can be heard saying the posters “ruins the [metal light] poles.” She adds that the signs are okay to hang on the wooden utility poles instead.

“I felt so angry and disgusted hearing that she cares more about a pole than an actual human, an actual life. We’re looking for justice for Chelsea and she cared more about the poles than her. It made me sick to my stomach hearing that,” Lorelei Williams, founder of Butterflies in Spirit, told CityNews.

Butterflies in Spirit helped organize Saturday’s march with the Poorman family. Williams says it’s crucial to see Chelsea’s face in Shaughnessy around the neighbourhood, but the group continues to see signs pulled down.

“Even though we glued them really well, somebody went out of the way to tear her face and the information off,” Williams said. “I actually called the police and I said, ‘hey, you need to check these cameras. Somebody is going out of their way to do this.’ So this has been happening throughout since she went missing.”

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Related stories:

• ‘The case is not closed’: Vancouver police defend Chelsea Poorman investigation

• ‘Vancouver Police must issue an apology to Chelsea’s family for their lack of action,’ FSIN says

In a separate incident, Battered Women’s Support Services says a staff member recorded another man also tearing down posters.

“We saw aggression. And we saw the kind of very aggressive behaviour that was directed at making Chelsea’s experience invisible, rendering her death, her disappearance, and her subsequent death, invisible in that neighborhood,” Angela Maria MacDougall with the Battered Women’s Support Services said. “It’s disappointing, most definitely. But not surprising.”

Chelsea was last seen downtown on Sept. 6, 2020 and was reported missing two days later. In early May, Vancouver police confirmed Chelsea’s body was found outside a vacant home near 36th Avenue and Granville Street April.

On Monday, the VPD reiterated, “Evidence that we have collected so far does not lead us to believe her death was the result of a crime. We are, however, continuing to investigate.”

But family and some community members believe Chelsea was murdered and they don’t think the police are taking the case seriously.

CityNews searched through Shaughnessy Monday and could not find one poster that lists contact information for anyone who might have tips.

While Sheila waits for answers, she says she is focusing on how to live without Chelsea.

“We did find her, but not the way we wanted and need to come to terms that we have to move on with our lives without Chelsea, which is going to be really, really hard,” she said.

– With files from Nikitha Martins