‘My heart is shattered’: Sister of woman found frozen believes foul play was involved

February 9, 2025 Canuck

A Manitoba woman is fighting to have her sister’s death investigated as a homicide after she was found unconscious outside on a freezing cold night and later discovered to be covered in bruises.

April Woodhouse, 50, died in hospital after her body was found on Jan. 31 lying at the doorstep of a home in Fairford, Man., part of Pinaymootang First Nation, her family says.

That night, Rosie Stagg, Woodhouse’s sister, was in the community — which is about 219 kilometres north of Winnipeg — to attend a wake service for her cousin, when she was told there had been an emergency with her sister.

A group of people had kicked down the door of a house near where Woodhouse was found and brought her inside, Stagg said. The temperature that night plunged to –26 C, but felt close to –29 with the windchill.

When Stagg got to the home, her sister was lying on the kitchen floor, wrapped in blankets as heaters were blasting around her.

“She was breathing faintly,” Stagg told CBC in an interview Saturday. “[We] kept getting a pulse, but it would just fade away again.”

Those at the home started doing CPR on her, trying to get her heart going.

“I went down and looked at her … this is my baby sister, I told her [to] call on Jesus because that’s our belief, we [were] born and raised in a Christian home,” Stagg said. “God will save us when we call on him.”

A woman in a black and white picture smiles. — Rosie Stagg says her sister April Woodhouse, seen in this image, was a loving person, who would do no harm to anyone and was full of life. (Submitted by Rosie Stagg)

She said Woodhouse opened her eyes briefly and glanced at her before closing them again. Not too long after, paramedics arrived.

“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think straight,” she said, so Stagg went outside the house to where Woodhouse had been found.

She noticed fresh vehicle track marks leading to the corner of the building and the doorstep.

“One safety officer noticed on the ground that somebody had been shuffling around, like maybe somebody was wrestling on the ground and he could see drag marks,” Stagg said.

Paramedics took Woodhouse about 60 kilometres south to Ashern’s Lakeshore General Hospital, Stagg said, where doctors told the family she had internal injuries.

In the last minutes with her sister, Stagg said she sat down beside her in the hospital. She reached for her hand, which she hadn’t seen until that point as she had been wrapped in blankets for warmth.

“I noticed that her hands were all beaten … were just bruised and cut and part of her pinky finger was sliced off,” Stagg said. “Her fingers there [were] dense as if her hand was slammed [in] a vehicle door.”

Stagg said bruises were also visible on other parts of Woodhouse’s body, so she took photographs to document it.

“She had marks of somebody beat her on her legs … and her face didn’t look good,” she said. “I knew that my sister did not freeze.”

‘My heart is shattered’

Woodhouse died shortly after at the age of 50. She leaves behind four children, nine grandchildren and one more on the way.

The sibling is being remembered as a loving person, who would do no harm to anyone and was full of life.

“She had love for everyone,” Stagg said. “My heart is shattered. My whole life is shattered right now.”

RCMP originally told the family and other media they were not investigating the death, indicating nothing criminal had occurred.

A spokesperson for the RCMP told CBC they are investigating Woodhouse’s death, but said police understand “there are a lot of rumours circulating through the community.”

Officers are currently taking statements from those who might have been in contact with Woodhouse prior to her death.

An autopsy is also scheduled for early this week, which should provide information on whether any criminal activity was involved in the death or if it was due to exposure to the cold, police said.

But Stagg believes foul play was involved in her sister’s death.

“My sister was beaten and left for dead,” Stagg said. “She would not ever, ever in her life go and lay down on someone’s steps face down.”

Woodhouse lived close to the home where she was found, Stagg said, and she had the habit of returning home no matter how late it was.

“Somebody did this to her and dumped her there that night. I know it.”

‘It was like they didn’t care’

Throughout the investigation Stagg said she has felt the RCMP aren’t doing enough to investigate her sister’s death.

“There was a corporal I talked to on Monday morning … he [said] ‘we’re not taking this as a homicide’,” she said.

“Just the tone of his voice … it was like they didn’t care, they didn’t want to do anything, it was just another Aboriginal taken from this world.”

Stagg said she had told police how there was blood on the vest and the sweater Woodhouse was wearing. She also told officers that doctors had informed the family about the internal injuries, but the police “wouldn’t listen,” she said.

Now the family is in the pursuit for justice and answers in Woodhouse’s death.

“I will not give up until it’s done. I won’t back down,” Stagg said.

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Canada News

‘My heart is shattered’: Sister of woman found frozen believes foul play was involved

‘My heart is shattered’

‘It was like they didn’t care’

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