Prince George, British Columbia — Saric-Auger was born on December 30, 1991 in Edmonton, Alberta. A member of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, she was the youngest of six children.
Aielah didn't have an easy life growing up. When she was young, she and her mother, Audrey, were driving when their car slid on black ice. The pair ended up in the ditch and Aielah is said to have temporarily lost consciousness.
Then, in 2000, the family learnt that she was being abused by a relative who had come to stay with them. Despite Audrey removing the children from the situation, they found themselves living in various motels until CPS caught up with them and separated the children, with Aielah in particular being sent to live with her paternal grandparents.
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In 2004, Audrey made the decision to relocate the family to Prince George, British Columbia, where her older brother resided. While she went to find a place to live, the children went to live in Enoch, a Cree Nation reserve located approximately 35km west of Edmonton. Once in Prince George, the family lived in a rented trailer just off Highway 16, on the western edge of the city.
On the day that Aielah disappeared, Feb. 2, 2006, she left home with her brother and sister for a day at the mall.
She has been gone just over a week from her home, and her family has plastered "Missing" posters all over the downtown Prince George area, where she was last seen. But Aielah Saric-Auger is not coming home.
About a week after she went missing, on February 10, a motorist travelling east to Prince George on Highway 16 contacted police after seeing something in the ditch, near the Tabor Mountain ski resort. When officers arrived on location, they discovered the nude body of a deceased female.
According to the website firstnationsdrum.com, her "small body was found and identifiable, but so much of it was missing that the family had to have a closed casket funeral."
Through the necklace found around her neck, her mother was able to positively ID the body as Aielah. The public were notified of the identification on February 15, 2006.
The highway on which Aielah's body was found is known as the Highway of Tears. It's a 725km stretch of desolate road between Prince George and Prince Rupert and has been the site of many murders and disappearances, starting in the late 1960s and continuing to this day.
The majority of the cases involve Indigenous women and girls, and many remain unsolved.
Those with information regarding the murder of Aielah Saric-Auger are asked to contact the Prince George detachment of the RCMP at 250-561-3300. Tips can also be submitted anonymously via British Columbia Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
