Hamilton Police investigate damage to sign seeking information on murdered Indigenous woman

Helen’s sign withstood the vandalism that marred her memorial, but many of the medicine bundles, red hearts, ribbons, dresses and messages of love were torn down. (Photo by Lisa Iesse)

By Lisa Iesse Writer HAMILTON – It’s a hate crime. That’s how Hamilton City Police are investigating the recent defacement that hit a sign seeking information on the 29 year-old murder of an Indigenous woman. The sign had just gone up this year on Valentine’s Day. Helen Gillings was from the Kenora region believed, to have been of Ojibwa decent, she was adopted at four-years-old she was raised in Alberta until she became a teen and by 16 was on her own in Toronto and eventually Hamilton and was a mother of two young children. She was just 19 years old when she was murdered in Hamilton in 1995. Her body was found under a couch in an alley on King Street in Hamilton on Feb. 17, 1995. She had…

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