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Family marks one year since father's murder

It's been a year since Allan Waugh was murdered in his own home. Police have not arrested anyone for the crime, but his family is pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
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It’s been a year since Allan Waugh was murdered in his own home.

Police have not arrested anyone for the crime, but his family is pleading for anyone with information to come forward.

They marked the somber anniversary Friday by holding a march through the McIntyre subdivision where Waugh lived.

“On behalf of my family I make a statement, I make a plea, for anyone with information regarding the murder of my father Al Waugh on May 30, 2014 please come forward. Our family needs peace,” his daughter Dawn Waugh told the crowd.

The 69-year-old Waugh, a father of five, was found dead in his home that Friday.

Police immediately said foul play was suspected in his death. That would make him the first murder in the Yukon since 2010.

“For those of you who didn’t know my dad, he was a great man who took care of his family and we miss him,” Dawn told the crowd of about 60 people, her voice breaking.

Unfortunately his death wasn’t the last murder the community would experience in 2014. Seventeen-year-old Brandy Vittrekwa was found dead in December on a walking trail. A 15-year-old boy has since been charged with second degree murder in her death.

Jeannie Dendys, the Kwanlin Dun First Nation’s justice director, said the march was about the community coming together.

“This is a really strong symbolic message that our community is coming together, we stand together and we will continue to support the family and work in any way that we can to hopefully find out the answers that they’re looking for.”

Having unsolved crimes is “devastating,” she said.

“They create a sense of unsafety. There’s just so many unanswered questions and it’s really hard for the community to move forward and have healing when we don’t know,” she said.

Days after Waugh’s death there was a suspected arson fire in the neighbourhood that is still unsolved. A hit-and-run investigation is also still open, she said.

Marches like this are a way to encourage people to break their silence, she said.

“That could very well be that there is a code of silence and this is a way of opening up that voice and helping the community to maybe gain some courage around coming forward and that they’re not alone.”

Waugh’s children wrote a tribute to their dad in the form of a poem read by Dawn.

“...Your presence we miss, your memory we treasure/ loving you always, forgetting you never. No farewell words were spoken, no time to say goodbye./ You were gone before we knew it and only God can tell us why…”

Police are continuing to investigate any new information they get, Dendys said.

The Whitehorse RCMP can be reached at (867) 667-5555.

- With files from Joel Krahn

Contact Ashley Joannou at

ashleyj@yukon-news.com