Charlene Gauld

Charlene Gauld was a young woman trying to find a way out of a difficult life. At 20 years old, she was known to be a kind and sweet person, but one who seemed lost, caught in the grip of a drug addiction that tied her to the streets. She had been devastated by the recent death of her close friend, Samantha Berg, who was found dead just three months earlier. At Samantha's funeral, a grieving Charlene told a support worker she was determined to leave the sex trade. "I'm done," she said. "I'm not going to go back." She wanted to get away from the drugs and the dangers of the street, but the pull of her addiction was a powerful force she struggled to overcome.

Charlene was last seen alive in Edmonton, Alberta, on April 8, 2005. Five days later, on April 13, she was reported missing. The search for her ended in the most tragic way imaginable on the morning of Saturday, April 16, 2005. An oil service employee, making routine checks in a wooded, rural oilfield area near Camrose, southeast of Edmonton, discovered her remains. Police reported that Charlene’s body and the area immediately around her had been burned. Her family was described by police as being "absolutely devastated" by the news.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) immediately began investigating her death as a homicide. Charlene, who used the street name ‘Roxanne,’ had previously registered with Project KARE, a joint RCMP and Edmonton Police task force created in 2003 to investigate the growing number of missing and murdered women living high-risk lifestyles in and around Edmonton. Her case became one of more than 70 being examined by the special project. Investigators were acutely aware of the pattern of women from Edmonton's sex trade being found murdered in rural areas outside the city, but they were careful not to focus solely on the theory of a single serial killer. An RCMP spokesperson stated at the time, "There is absolutely no evidence to link this to any other death at this point in time... If we were to focus on just the avenue of a single person as being responsible, we may in fact overlook valuable information."

Charlene’s death sent another wave of fear and grief through the community. In the week following the discovery of her body, dozens of sex-trade workers and their supporters gathered for a vigil in Edmonton to mourn her loss and call for action. Kate Quinn, with the Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation, spoke about Charlene's friendship with Samantha Berg, noting how they always looked out for each other. She lamented the hold that drugs had on Charlene, preventing her from making the escape she desperately wanted. "Even though in her spirit she wanted to be free of this, she couldn't seem to manage it," Quinn said.

The investigation into Charlene Gauld's murder was hampered by the condition in which her body was found, a common challenge in the Project KARE cases. The use of fire often destroys crucial forensic evidence, making it difficult for medical examiners to determine a precise cause of death and for investigators to identify a suspect. Despite the passage of time, her case has never been closed.

More than a decade after her death, Charlene Gauld’s murder remains unsolved. Her file is still part of the historical homicide investigations stemming from the Project KARE era. The task force itself has since been restructured, but the commitment to solving these cases continues. There has been no public identification of any suspects or persons of interest in connection with her killing. The families of Charlene and the many other women lost during that time continue to wait for answers and for justice.