Family still searching for answers almost 2 years after Erin Brooks's disappearance

When Laurie Brooks talks about her daughter, Erin, she speaks in the past tense.

Almost two years have gone by, and all that relatives of Erin Brooks know about what happened to her is that she's likely no longer alive.

Police say Brooks was likely the victim of a homicide sometime after she was last seenbuying cigarettes at St. Mary's Smoke Shop on Dec. 27, 2021, at Sitansisk(St. Mary's First Nation).

But exactly what happened to her, remains a mystery.

"We don't have any closure," Laurie Brooks saidin an interview.

Since her disappearance, vigils have been held, searches have been conducted in woodsaround Fredericton, andanonymous donors have offered up a $65,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to finding Brooks.

Family members now see Brooks, aWolastoqey woman and member of St. Mary's First Nation, as one of hundredsof Indigenous women and girlswho've either disappeared or have been murdered acrossCanada in recent decades.

"You read about it, you see it on TV, and you know, you feel bad for these people, but you don't truly understand until you have to go through it yourself," said Amy Paul, Erin Brooks's sister.

"It is awful."

A mother of four children, Brooks would have celebrated her 40th birthday this year, said Laurie Brooks.

A happy child, troubled adult

Laurie said her daughter was a happy child growing up, always smiling and finding things to preoccupy herself with.

That energy would later cause headaches for her parents, when Brooksstarted sneaking out of the house at night, or would loseher temper, which became worse as she got older.

Laurie said that it was after Brookshad her second child at 17 that her daughter started getting involved in "the party scene."

"And it just spiralled out of control from there," the mother said,

"And it wasn't that she didn't love her family, but she had an addiction problem, and we all know how addiction goes. You tend to wipe everything and everybody out of your life who isn'tinto that addiction."

Sitting beside her mother, Amy chimed in, adding addiction doesn't define a person, andthat her sister never involved her orother relatives in the darker side of her life.

"A lot of times we didn't know what she was doing," Amy said.

WATCH | 'Put her to rest. She deserves that,' says Erin Brooks's mother:

Mother of Erin Brooks says she needs answers

1 year ago

Duration 4:43

Forty-year-old Erin Brooks of Sitansisk (St. Marys First Nation) disappeared in December 2021 from the Fredericton area, and police have no leads.

Laurie said her daughter's lifestyle could have been a factor in her disappearance, butshe hasno way of knowing for sure.

"When I tell you that we don't know anything, I mean we don't know anything," she said.

"We wish we knew where to look or where to go, but you know, when you're not involved in that world, that is a foreigncountry to us."

Updates from police about the investigation into Brooks's disappearance have been limited.

CBC News asked the Fredericton Police Force for an interview with Chief Martin Gaudet about the investigation, andinstead receivedan email from spokesperson Megan Barker saying the investigation is still underway.

Looking for closure

When approached aftera city council meeting earlier this year, Gaudet said he didn't have any updates on the case, but confirmed it is being investigated as a homicide.

Laurie Brooks said she's been happy with the work police have done on the file, addingdetectives always answer when she calls.

But sheand Amy are still hungry for answers, and eager to bring Brooks home, even if she's no longer alive.

"Every day off I have, we go out searching," Amysaid. "Didn't matter snow, rain, whatever, up to our hips in snow, and it's really, it's just like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

While Laurie doesn't know what happened to her daughter, she said she's sure there are people who do.

She appealed to them to do the right thing, to come forward with information in any way possible.

"I don't care how you get the message [to us]," Laurie said."Crime Stoppers, the Fredericton Police Department, just whoever. I don't care. We just want to know.

"We want to do right by her. Put her to rest."

Erin Brooks isdescribedas being about five feet two inches tall and 115 pounds.She has brown eyes and black hair with bangs and was last seen wearingblue jeans, a brown jacket andblack boots.

Anyone with any information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Fredericton police at506-460-2300, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.