Shelly Dene -- Last Seen in Edmonton in August 2013

Author: Shane Lambert
Original Time of Writing: January 6th, 2021
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.

Shelly Dene. Appears to be a selfie of her last Facebook post from May 17th, 2013.

Missing person: Shelly Tanis (might be Tannis) Dene

Last-seen date: August 2013; one report said July 2013
Last-seen location: Edmonton, Alberta, I think at her grandmother's house near 114th street and 102nd avenue

Last-communication: I think it was August 28th, 2013 via text message to her sister.
Link to Government Source: Case 2014006306
Ethnicity/Race: Aboriginal (of the Fort McKay First Nation)
Sex: Female
Age at time of disappearance: 25 years old
Hair: Brown
Eye color: Brown
Height and weight at the time of disappearance: 5'7" and 110 pounds
Scar: right cheek according to Canada's Missing; however, in a Youtube video I watched the scar(s) may have been on the left side of her face; they are from a dog bite.

Shelly Dene was last seen in August of 2013. However, she was not reported missing until November 8th of that year. This is a case involving a lot of activism on the parts of some of those who knew her. In fact, I lived in Edmonton from 2014 to 2015 and I remember seeing her missing-person posters around the downtown area. 

She had only moved to Edmonton in January of 2013 (one source said June) with a previous residency in Kelowna. At other times in her life, she lived in Fort McMurray, Fort McKay, and Vernon.

In the months or weeks prior to her last communication, she had learned that she would not be getting custody of her child back. Reportedly, this wasn't good for her emotional well-being. In the following excerpt from an Edmonton Journal article, "Candice" refers to Shelly's sister and "Yvonne" refers to Shelly's mother. In what I believe is Shelly's last-known communication, she indicated that she was going to the Yukon.

Mon, May 11, 2015 – 4 · Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) · Newspapers.com

The balance of the picture I got when reading about this case was that Shelly may have been heading to the Yukon in a red truck with a man who was of First Nations descent.

Wed, Aug 27, 2014 – 2 · Whitehorse Daily Star (Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada) · Newspapers.com

          

Someone traveling from Edmonton to the Yukon using the highway would likely head west on the Yellowhead Highway. After that, there are two ways to go: one through White Court and Grand Prairie or one through Grand Cache and Grand Prairie. That she may have been traveling with a man with a vehicle seems to reduce the chances of her using hitchhiking. 

Yet, all leads, in this case, appear to be tenuous. If you read the journalism in an effort to get an inkling of what happened to Shelly, at some points you think suicide because she had a history of substance use. Furthermore, she seemed to be, at least, upset or disappointed at the time of her disappearance over not having custody of her child. Yet, that she may have been motivated to have custody of him or her speaks to a reason to live.

There is a text message that Shelly sent her sister before she disappeared (August 28th, 2013). This is one that answered in the negative when Candice asked if Shelly was okay. That negative response is really hard to ignore. I also read that Shelly's cell phone went out of service in November. I'm wondering what that means exactly in terms of her activity with the phone.

Another circumstance, in this case, is just who exactly was the man she was seen with -- the man with the red truck. I'm sure he is someone that the police would want to question. Shelly's case has received some news exposure. I've wondered if the man has confronted any coverage of her disappearance and, if so, why he hasn't come forward.

Did they go to the Yukon together? Is he missing too? The person that saw him says he was wearing beige clothes and she wondered if he might have been a Truck Driver by profession. Was the red truck actually a rig?

A break, in this case, would be if someone ever came across a missing person's report involving an aboriginal man in western Canada who was last known to be driving a red truck before he disappeared in 2013. Sometimes, when people use the highway they go off the highway. If Shelly disappeared with the man she was last seen with then his case file might generate a lead. Keep an aboriginal male with a red truck in mind if you are among those that peruse through missing people reports.

But, to be honest, there is not much to go on for Shelly. The search area is immense as the trip from Edmonton to Whitehorse is 22 hours or so. At present, I would have to say that the chances of an amateur or websleuth providing a useful lead in this case is low.