Case of missing Manitoba woman now considered homicide: RCMP

The 2008 disappearance of a Portage la Prairie woman is now being investigated as a homicide, the RCMP said Wednesday.

The ongoing search for Amber McFarland, 24, brought police back to the residence of her former boyfriend, who was one of the last people with whom McFarland was seen at the time of her disappearance in October 2008.

Police searched the residence for several days last fall, but RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Line Karpish said new evidence prompted them to start digging up his backyard on Wednesday.

"Based on information we've gathered over the past few months, our investigation basically supports that she was murdered," Karpish said but would not provide any details about the evidence.

McFarland's mother, Lori, hopes the new evidence will provide some answers, but regardless of what police find, she said, it won't bring back her daughter.

'We're just hoping that they find something because we haven't had one shred of a trace of her, and there has to be something.'Lori McFarland

"Changing the wording doesn't change anything for us. She's missing and we haven't expected a good outcome," she said. "We're just hoping that they find something because we haven't had one shred of a trace of her, and there has to be something."

McFarland 's mother said the family is not holding out much hope for a happy ending; they just want to know what happened to their daughter.

McFarland was last seen at a bar in Portage la Prairie, located about 70 kilometres west of Winnipeg, in the early morning of Oct. 18, 2008.

She has blond hair and green eyes and is about 5-foot-7 and weighs 135 pounds. She was wearing a black sweater and blue jeans when she was last seen.

Anyone who has information on McFarland's whereabouts is asked call Portage la Prairie RCMP at 204-857-4445 or Manitoba Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.