The Winnipeg Police Service is requesting the public’s assistance in locating twenty-one-year-old Claudette Osborne, who has been missing since August 5th.

Osborne was last seen near Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street in the North End of Winnipeg, and is known to frequent that area. She is described as Aboriginal in appearance, 5’7, 145 lbs, long black hair, wearing black pin-striped pants, and a black v-necked t-shirt with a ruffled collar.

The investigation has revealed that she may have intended to travel to either Northern Manitoba or Western Canada.

Anyone with information regarding Osborne’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Winnipeg Police Service Missing Persons Unit at (204) 986-6250, or the Police Non-Emergency line at (204) 986-6222.
http://www.cjob.com/News/Local/Story.aspx?ID=1020414

Missing woman's family fears worst

Woman missing two weeks left worrisome phone messages

By CHRIS KITCHING, SUN MEDIA

The Winnipeg Sun

The family of a missing 21-year-old Winnipeg woman fears she may have been harmed after she left worrisome phone messages for relatives two weeks ago.

Claudette Osborne was last seen July 24 and her loved ones say it's very unusual for her not to stay in touch.

"We're all extremely concerned," said boyfriend Matt Bushby, who has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Osborne for about three years.

In messages Osborne left for her sister, Tina, and step-father late July 24 or early July 25, she wanted to be picked up.

"It didn't sound like she was in a happy place," Tina Osborne said.

"All the signs were there that things were happening against her will," Bushby said.

Anyone with information about Osborne's whereabouts is asked to call police at 986-6050 or 986-6222.

Osborne, a sex-trade worker nicknamed Penny, was last seen by her sister at Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street the day she disappeared.

She was wearing black pinstriped pants and a black V-neck T-shirt with a ruffled collar, police said.

"I don't want to think the worst. I just hope that she is OK," Tina Osborne said.

She and Bushby think Claudette went back to a crack addiction and prostitution -- after being free of both for most of the last two years -- after she wasn't given custody of her fourth child, a daughter, Patience, born July 10.

"I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back," Bushby said. "She just hit rock bottom after not having the baby in her care."

He said she may be suffering from post-partum depression.

Bushby is the father of Patience and 20-month-old Iziah, who are in his care. Her other kids are from previous relationships. Six-year-old Dayton is with his dad and three-year-old Layla is with Osborne's mom.

Osborne had talked about rehab and getting off the streets to regain custody of her kids.

Bushby last talked to her July 19 when she told him she wasn't feeling well.

"The last thing she said to me was, 'Give my babies a hug and a kiss and tell them I love them,'" Bushby said in tears.

Osborne's family has endured other tragedies.

A distant cousin, unsolved homicide victim Felicia Solomon-Osborne, 16, disappeared in 2003. Her arm and leg were later found on the banks of the Red River.

Claudette Osborne's mom was related to Helen Betty Osborne, 19, who was murdered in The Pas in 1971.

Helen Betty Osborne's 42-year-old brother, Kelvin, was fatally stabbed this year in Winnipeg.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/08...384511-sun.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/20...ng-osborne.html

Winnipeg police seek young woman missing 2 weeks
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 | 8:31 AM CT CBC News

Police are asking for the public's help in locating a Winnipeg woman who has been missing for nearly two weeks.

Claudette Osborne, 21, was last seen in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street, in the city's North End neighbourhood, on July 24, and she is "known to frequent that area," police said.

Osborne, who also goes by the name Penny, is described as five feet seven inches tall, weighing about 145 pounds.

She has long, black hair and was last seen wearing black pin-striped pants and a black v-necked T-shirt with a ruffled collar.

Anyone with information on Osborne's whereabouts is asked to contact the police's missing persons unit at (204) 986-6050 or the police non-emergency line at (204) 986-6222.



http://winnipeg.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CT...ub=WinnipegHome

Family worries about missing woman
Updated: Wed Aug. 06 2008 18:46:25

ctvwinnipeg.ca

Family members and Winnipeg police are looking for a missing 21-year-old woman.

Claudette Osborne was last seen July 24, near Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street and is known to frequent that area.

She also goes by the name 'Penny Tyo.'

Osborne is 5'7", 145 lbs, and was wearing black pin striped pants, black v-necked t-shirt with a ruffled collar.

In an e-mail from a man who says he is in an on-again, off-again relationship with the missing woman, Matt Bushby tells CTV News the family is worried because the last conversation anyone had with Osborne dealt with her health.

"She indicated to us that she was hemorrhaging from delivering her baby girl on July 10," Bushy said in the e-mail. "She usually calls to let us know she is ok, but it has been over 14 days since her last call and we are very worried."

Osborne is the mother of four children.

Bushby said Claudette was very upset and said she may be suffering from post partum depression and is not thinking clearly.

In a phone interview with CTV News, her sister Tina said Claudette is now a sex trade worker, and she said Claudette has a drug addiction.

If you can help find Claudette Osborne, you're asked to call the Winnipeg Police Service Missing Persons Unit at (204) 986-6050 or the Police Non-Emergency line at (204) 986-6222.

With a report from CTV's Alana Pona.



http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/20...ng-osborne.html

Family pleads for help finding missing Winnipeg sex-trade worker
Last Updated: Thursday, August 7, 2008 | 4:06 PM CT CBC News

A Winnipeg family is fearing the worst as they search for 21-year-old Claudette Osborne, who has been missing for more than two weeks.

Osborne, who also goes by the name Penny, was last seen July 24 in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street, in the city's North End neighbourhood.

Her family acknowledges that Osborne lived a troubled life. A young mother of four children, she became addicted to drugs, and work in the sex trade soon followed, said her sister, Tina Osborne.

She last heard from her sister in a series of telephone messages left on her machine overnight two weeks ago. She worries her sister was with a "john" and ran into trouble.

"She said she didn't want to be where she was and wanted someone to go and pick her up," she said. "I know by the sound of her voice … she was scared."

The family fears the worst.

"It scares me to think my sister's out there, like, who knows where she is or what she's doing?" she said. "I know a lot of sex-trade workers and crack addicts are often found dead, in a garbage bin and — it's just crazy, like, chopped up somewhere."

No new leads: police
Police released a missing-person alert Tuesday, but said they have received no new information.

Sharon Morgan of Ikwe Widdjiitiwin, an aboriginal women's shelter that is helping in the search, said women in Osborne's position are extremely vulnerable and have few places to turn for help.

"They're just tiny little fish in a great big sea, and no one seems to give a s**t about them," she said.

The family hopes anyone with information will provide it to investigators.

"Yeah, she's a prostitute. Yeah, she does smoke crack. But that's my little sister," Osborne said.

"Despite everything she's done — not only to herself but to her family — we love her and we just want her to come home."

Osborne is described as five-foot-seven, weighing about 145 pounds. She has long, black hair and was last seen wearing black pin-striped pants and a black V-necked T-shirt with a ruffled collar.

Anyone with information on Osborne's whereabouts is asked to contact the missing persons unit at (204) 986-6050 or the police non-emergency line at (204) 986-6222.



http://www.womanist-musings.com/2008/08/cl...-sex-trade.html

Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Claudette Osborne: More Than A Sex Trade Worker

Claudette has been missing for two weeks and the police have no leads. According to the CBC she is 21 years old and is the mother of four children. To find out those pertinent details you have to read through the entire article because the title of the news story is "Family pleads for help finding missing Winnipeg sex trade worker." I suppose that the CBC feels progressive for even devoting time to this story because the media routinely ignores crimes against sex trade workers, however this report can hardly challenge the media's construction of these women as spoiled identities when the title signifies that her main identity is that of a sex trade worker.

Claudette is a mother, sister and daughter but the CBC wants to make sure that you remember that she is a sex trade worker. The title of this piece is not at all accidental. By identifying Claudette as a sex trade worker instead of one of the various roles in which she participates the CBC is in effect slut shaming. Somehow if you work in the sex trade nothing else about you matters. This approach is constantly taken whenever the mainstream media deigns to report on women like Claudette.

The reduction of women to sexual objects is part of our social discourse. Daily we reduce women through the patriarchal lens to less than. When we moralize sex and legitimate some acts as good, and some acts as deviant the taint very rarely attach's itself to men. It's always the dirty whore, the dirty slut or the dirty prostitute, while very little is said about those who procure their services. When we speak of prostitutes it is always assumed that we are speaking of a woman even though males engage in this behaviour. Social discipline of sex, and sex acts is something that is specifically geared towards woman. This is why the CBC can let the world know that a sex trade worker is missing and then add in a by the way commentary that she just happened to be a mother of four as well. Claudette Osborne is missing and she is a person, she matters.