Wendy Lafortune has been missing for one year today; her sister, Lorry Lafortune can’t find anything but rage on the anniversary of her disappearance.
She told Sudbury.com she has been waking to tears each day, the last few weeks in particular, “My pillow was wet from crying each morning when I realized another day without her,” said Lafortune.
But now, after all these months, she’s more angry than anything else.
Lafortune said she is mad at herself for not listening to her mom fast enough when she said last year that it was odd Wendy hadn’t been home. “I told her Wendy was just out with friends, she’ll come home like she always does.”
But Wendy never did.
Wendy was last seen on May 1, 2024, walking in front of the Olivera Building at 721 Lasalle Boulevard. She is 5-3 tall, around 130 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a grey hoodie, a black and white windbreaker-style jacket and brown leather boots.
And as much as Lafortune has wanted to find her sister, searching everywhere, sharing posts, photos, stories of her going missing, instead of getting leads, she said she is getting threats and contacts from people trying to take advantage.
Unsolicited calls from psychics, at least five, with two claiming her sister is alive and three claiming Wendy is dead and telling Lafortune where to look for the body.
There are the rumour mills that run steady in a small town like Sudbury, with people sharing their thoughts about where Wendy might be, or what might have been done and by whom, but never any actual information.
The worst, said Lafortune, was when she spoke to a few people about trying to come up with a few thousand dollars to offer a reward for information about Wendy’s disappearance. She left the group, and by that night, had received a ransom demand. “They said give us the $3,000 or your sister gets hurt.” she said.
Lafortune has turned every message, every bit of information she can to police, but without anything tangible, and without the ability to search without probable cause and a warrant, police seem to have their hands tied, she told Sudbury.com.
Sudbury.com spoke with Lafortune last November, after her sister had been missing five months. She told us Wendy’s daughters, 16 and 26, miss their mother terribly, as does the rest of the family.“She’s so fun, chatty, kind and compassionate,” said Lafortune.”We’re missing our heart.”
When she disappeared, Wendy was only five days out of a recovery program, and to everyone’s knowledge, still wasn’t using drugs, said her sister. Lafortune said she was making plans for a long-term recovery program.
Lafortune feels Wendy used substances to self-medicate for an undiagnosed mental illness, and in many ways, grief. Wendy’s first child, Alexis, died of meningitis at age four; her grandchild died of a rare disease two years ago at the age of three.
Lafortune said she is very concerned about Wendy’s youngest daughter, whose grief is bordering on an unravelling. There are so many tears, so many questions, so much anger, and no real box to put it in: not until they know if she is still alive.
“I don't even know, as an adult, I don't even know how to feel about this all. No, I'm so broken inside, man, I just don't know how to feel,” said Lafortune, noting that if she feels this way, how could her niece possibly be coping?
“We are trying, but there is no support for her, no answers, nothing,” she said. “We just sit and wait and feel out of control and angry and sad and all of that.”
It’s also not lost on Lafortune that there are currently three other women in the Sudbury-Manitoulin area that have gone missing in the last year: Shanda and Parisa, both of Sudbury, and Juanita Migwans of M’Chigeeng.
Lafortune told Sudbury.com that’s why she put together a vigil for Saturday, May 3: both to honour Wendy, but also, to raise awareness of the other women as well.
The vigil will be held from 3:30-5 p.m. at Belfry Avenue on Lasalle Boulevard. The walk will go from Belfry along Lasalle to Adanac Gardens Road, where the Apollo Terrace townhome complex is located. There will be speeches and light refreshments for children.
Anyone with information related to the whereabouts of Lafortune is asked to contact police at 705-675-9171 or Crime Stoppers at 705-222-8477.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com, covering vulnerable and marginalized populations, as well as housing issues and the justice system.