‘We need your help:’ Public asked to call in sightings of missing Winnipeg woman

WINNIPEG – Searchers have found the glasses of a Winnipeg woman who disappeared the day she was to attend her grandchild’s birthday party.

Thelma Krull, who is 57, left her home Saturday morning to go for a hike before picking up her grandson’s birthday cake.

Police say they found her glasses in the Valley Gardens area on Tuesday.

The neighbourhood near a community club and high school was thoroughly searched, but nothing else was turned up.

Investigators want anyone who was there between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Saturday to think back about whether they might have seen Krull.

Detective Sgt. Shaunna Neufeld says the more time that elapses, the more concerned police become.

“We’re not ruling out anything in this investigation. We don’t know what’s happened to Thelma. We’re on Day 5 now,” Neufeld said at a news conference Wednesday.

She said there were a lot of people in the Valley Gardens area who may have seen something.

“There’s a lot of space. There were people playing tennis in that area that morning. There were people playing football, people out walking, people out jogging. There were lots of people out in that area,” Neufeld said.

“If you noticed someone walking in that area, in those fields, give us a call. We want to talk to you.”

Krull was training for a seven-day hike in British Columbia and police said she may also have been walking on Henderson Highway and Regent Avenue West.

Krull’s husband, Robert, urged anyone who might have seen something to call police.

“This is Winnipeg. It’s a great city and we need your help. Please, if you have anything — anything — tell the police,” he said.

He told Global Winnipeg that he didn’t see his wife the morning she headed out.

“I was still sleeping when she left.”

He said he last spoke to her Friday night.

“I was watching the football game. She was out on the deck reading and she was on her phone. After the game was over, I went out. We sat for maybe an hour and a half. Everything was good.

“We talked about what we were going to do the next day, things we wanted to do around the house. There were no problems that way. About 10 o’clock the mosquitoes came out and we went to bed.”

Police on Wednesday also released surveillance camera footage of Krull walking near her home. They’ve asked anyone with home security or business cameras in the areas mentioned to check them.

People are also being asked to check their yards, green spaces, outbuildings and vehicles.

Krull is described as being five-foot-four and weighing 170 pounds. She has short, dyed blond hair with a purple streak. She was last seen wearing black Capri pants, a reddish-orange shirt, hiking boots and glasses.

Search-and-rescue crews were back in Valley Gardens on Wednesday.

(CJOB, Global Winnipeg)