'Know her name': Family mourns woman's death as former City of Lethbridge employee faces murder charge

Ginnean Briggs-Scout's family wants you to "know her name."

In an RCMP news release announcing second-degree murder charges against a 61-year-old man, police described Ginnean, the victim, as "the deceased … a 28-year-old female resident of Lethbridge," whose body was discovered in a rural area near Oyen, Alta. 

The Briggs and Scout families sat down with CBC News at the Lethbridge home of Ginnean's parents to talk about their daughter and ensure that people know "she wasn't just some Jane Doe."

"I just want them to know her name … she's a sister, she's a mother, she was a daughter, she's a granddaughter," said Charmayne Scout, Ginnean's older sister.

The family, as well as CBC News, has also pieced together new details about the man accused of murder and his relationship with Ginnean.

In the weeks since the RCMP laid charges, the family has learned that the man arrested by police was someone they'd met before — a person Ginnean had known for years.

CBC News has also learned that Garry Dean Brown, the man facing a second-degree murder charge, worked for the City of Lethbridge. 

Ginnean Briggs-Scout was known in her family as "silly, outgoing, protective" and "a firecracker." 

She slipped into addiction through a boyfriend about eight years ago, according to her parents, James and Vicki Briggs. Drugs "took control," said her dad. 

But even when it would be weeks between check-ins, Ginnean would eventually "pop back up," according to James. 

'He was always looking for her'

At the time of her death, James and Vicki say Ginnean was living a high-risk lifestyle. Along with the addiction, she was working in Lethbridge's sex trade, according to her family. 

Desiree Scout says it's through that lifestyle that her cousin, close friend and sometimes roommate Ginnean met Garry Dean Brown.

Desiree is soft-spoken and can't talk about Ginnean without tearing up. The two young women lived the same vulnerable lifestyle until Desiree got clean and turned her life around about a year ago. 

As close as sisters, the pair lived together on-and-off.

Desiree says she's known Brown, who RCMP say is from Vulcan County, even longer than Ginnean did. She says he was a client of Ginnean's who'd also befriended her. 

"He was always around her, he was always looking for her. When he couldn't find her, he would ask me," said Desiree. 

"I don't know what it was about him, but she really got along with him. They were really good friends."

'Who is this guy?'

When shown a photograph of Brown, Ginnean's father exclaimed, "That's him. That's him. That's the same dude that came knocking at our door."

James and Vicki say that an "older guy" showed up at their home twice over the last year or so to talk to them about Ginnean. 

A year ago, the man told the family that Ginnean had recently given birth and wanted to connect with them. 

James says he wondered, "Who is this guy? What's your relationship to my daughter?"

Another time, he came to ask if they'd seen Ginnean because she'd been missing for a week.

"He was bugging everybody and going online and asking if anybody knew where she was at," said James. 

CBC News has confirmed that Brown is a former employee with the City of Lethbridge parks and cemeteries department.

In October 2023, the city did a feature story about an oversized blue Adirondack chair that Brown built for the community. 

That story has been scrubbed from the city's website and social media accounts, but an internet archive website called the Wayback Machine allows access to the city's post before it was removed. 

The city would not comment on the removal of the Brown article, but did confirm he had been an employee. 

Because of privacy laws, a spokesperson for the city said it won't comment on what led to the termination of Brown's employment in June 2024. 

On Sept. 17, a rural landowner called RCMP to report finding women's clothing and other personal items just off a rural road in a treed area near Oyen, about 350 kilometres northeast of Lethbridge. 

Police were dispatched to the area and after a search, officers discovered Ginnean's body.

"What the heck was she doing up there?" Vicki wonders. 

'I need to know'

The family says they're frustrated with a lack of information from the RCMP and have been left to fill in the gaps on their own. 

They're tormented by their questions.

"We don't know what happened to her," said James. "We don't know how she looked when she was found, whether she was dressed or not, if there was a sexual assault involved. Nothing, nothing, nothing."

"It's been hard, really hard. As her parents, it may seem morbid, but it's stuff for myself, I need to know. I want to know exactly what happened to my daughter."

Brown's case is at the beginning of the court process. Murder trials often take more than a year before they're scheduled.

The family has been making the nearly three-hour drive to Hanna, Alta., to attend Brown's brief court appearances, the next of which is set to take place later this week.  

"She's not just an 'Indigenous, 28, female, found,'" said Vicki. "She's more than that and that's what we're trying to prove to the court."

CBC News reached out to Brown's lawyer, Scott Hadford, but did not receive a call back. 

'A promise to each other'

When asked why Ginnean wasn't named in the press release, a spokesperson for the RCMP said it was likely a "miscommunication." RCMP say the family was told her name wouldn't be released and "seemed good with that."

In reaction to the family's complaint about a lack of communication, RCMP said an officer would reach out in the next few days "as a normal, routine family contact."

For the Briggs and Scout families, one of the most painful parts of Ginnean's death is the lost opportunity to pull her out of her addiction.

They'd never lost hope that they could one day get her back. 

"We made a promise to each other that if one of us got clean, the other one would get clean too," said Desiree. 

"When I talked to her a few months before [her death], I let her know that I was clean and she was like 'that's really good for you.'" 

'She was loved'

Before the addiction took control, Ginnean was in cosmetology school.

Desiree's mom, Heather Scout, who was Ginnean's "favourite aunty," said she feels like she failed her niece.

"After I got my daughter sober, I was coming after my niece ... the plans were, I was going to get her back into school."

"She was loved," said James.

"Both me and the wife feel like somebody just reached inside of us and pulled a part of us out and we'll never get it back, and we had a lot of hopes and dreams for her which will never materialize now."