The family of a 22-year-old mother who whose body was found in a bag in Hinchinbrooke is waiting anxiously for answers as it comes to grips with the loss.
SQ has confirmed Friday that the body found in Hinchinbrooke Thursday belongs to missing LaSalle mother Samantha Higgins. On Saturday, it continued to scour the fields for clues, but so far do not have any news about a suspect.
Friends and family, meantime, spent the day tearing down missing posters plastered throughout the area, which served as a painful memory to those closest to her.
Friday night, many held a vigil near where Higgins went missing, at the McDonald's on Newman Blvd. in LaSalle.
"I'm coming here to let her soul free," said her sister Claudia Higgins.
Family and friends gathered in LaSalle Friday night for a vigil for Samantha Higgins.
Higgins's cousin Amanda confirmed that two official Go Fund Me campaigns were set up to help the woman's young family. They were created by her mother, Laurie, and are found here and here.
Higgins, who had a four-year-old child and a three-month-old baby, was recently engaged.
Family members drove about an hour away to Hinchinbrooke Saturday, to the site where her body was discovered. The victim's stepfather Danny Jones described that experience to us as being "very hurtful."
On Friday, Higgins's mother was visibly distraught.
"She was my best friend. I had her very young, so she wasn’t just my daughter. And I miss her so much," said her mother Vanessa Higgins. "Whoever did to her is so hateful and so selfish to take away somebody who filled everybody’s lives with so much happiness."
Higgins never returned home after a night out with a friend Monday.
Samantha Higgins poses in this undated photo. She was reported missing earlier this week. Her body was found in Hinchinbrooke, Que. Thursday.
The friend whose house she left texted her asking if she had gotten home safely. Samantha replied, “Yes, I’m home safe," but the family has said they believe somebody else may have replied using her phone.
Friday morning, Higgins's stepfather said the SQ contacted the family to reassure them the body did not belong to Higgins.
A statement posted on a Facebook page dedicated to finding Higgins thanks the public for their help and asks for privacy as they mourn their loss.
Later in the afternoon, both the SQ and the stepfather confirmed it was in fact Higgins’s body that was found.
Jones said the SQ came to their home early Friday to give them the news.
"Our bell rang, and I opened the door and I asked who it was, and it was police. We live on the first floor, and when I opened the door and looked down the hallway, I saw two men in black suits and right away I knew that was bad," he said, adding that he shared the bad news with her fiance.
"Her fiance, I went to his house this morning, to tell him and his parents and I explained to him first because he was in shock outside. Because they have two young children and I didn't want them to know," said Jones.
Residents first spotted the body in a bag near a river Thursday evening. Police put up a perimeter at the intersection of Montee Rockburn and Riviere des Outardes Rd. in order to investigate.
The town is south of Huntingdon, not far from the Canada-U.S. border.
Police would not confirm a local farmer's claim the body had been dismembered.
Resident Kenny Thompson said Thursday night he saw police lights at the river, which cuts through his property. When he went to see what was happening, he saw the body near the river.
"I would like to tell people, why hurt each other? There's no sense in hurting people and ruining families," Jones said.
SQ officers patrol the fields and hover in a helicopter in Hinchinbrooke. A young woman's was found Thursday in the small town just north of the Canada-U.S. border. Police later revealed it was Samantha Higgins's body. (Cindy Sherwin/CTV Montreal)
