Story of teen girl killed in 1986 takes over RCMP Twitter account for 1 day

Thirty years after the rape and murder of a Thompson teen girl, RCMP are trying to recreate the girl's last day on social media in hopes the unusual approach will drum up new leads in the cold case.

Kerrie Ann Brown, 15, vanished from a party in Thompson on Oct. 16, 1986. She was found dead two days later along a horse riding trail, her body badly beaten.

"[It] was egregious and just beyond comprehension what they did to her — she didn't deserve that fate," Brown's brother, Trevor Brown, told CBC News Friday. 

"For 30 years I have obsessed about who did this to my little sister and I haven't been able to move on."

On the anniversary of her death this Sunday, RCMP say they will issue tweets from Brown's point of view on the day she was killed.

I think someone is going to come forward and say something that hasn't been said in a very long time.- Trevor Brown

"I want to talk about the day I was killed. I want people to know what happened to me. I want the killer caught," reads one of several tweets that will be posted from Manitoba RCMP's Twitter account Sunday.

Messages will be sent out at key times on the day Brown went missing and was murdered, RCMP said.

"We never give up. If there is a new way to get information out to the public about a case, we support it," RCMP Const. Janna Amirault, lead investigator in the case, said in a statement Friday.

"It is a unique approach that I hope will raise awareness and put pressure on those who have information to come forward."

Trevor Brown said RCMP reviewed every planned tweet with him ahead of time.

"I wouldn't have thought of this … and I am glad they did because it has the potential to reach a whole lot of people," he said. "This is a big file and I know as much as we want to know who did this to Kerrie, they want to close this file."

'I can still hear it jangling'

Trevor Brown said the murder "destroyed our family."

That devastation affected each family member differently. His mother battled depression "right up until the day she died," while his father "hasn't had a good night's sleep in 30 years."

Meanwhile, Trevor Brown struggled with alcoholism and never married, which he blames on the murder.

"It's tragic. I've always struggled ... to describe how it affected us, what was done to her," he said, adding he still recalls the final conversation he and his sister had hours before she went to that party.

"I still remember what she was wearing when she walked out the door, I remember commenting on the belt she was wearing, it was this jangly, metal loopy belt ... I can still hear it jangling."

Kerrie Ann Brown had a midnight curfew and was supposed to be sleeping over at a friend's house after the party. 

"The family knows she left the party when an ex-boyfriend showed up," he said. 

"Kerrie had asked her friend if they could leave because she wasn't comfortable, they agreed, went outside together, her friend, Nicole, left something inside, went back to get it. When she came back outside, Kerrie was gone."

Tapping into emotion

Trevor Brown is convinced someone out there, aside from whoever murdered his sister, knows what happened. He hopes the day-long RCMP Twitter campaign on Sunday will strike a chord and lead to new answers into the case.

"We're just hoping to tap into some emotion that will bring them forward out of the darkness ... and say 'Hey, I've been sitting on this for a very long time and I want to tell you what I know,'" he said.

Trevor Brown was just 16 when his sister was murdered. Now in his 40s, he wants whoever violated and took his sister from the world to know one thing: "We are going to catch them."

"I think someone is going to come forward and say something that hasn't been said in a very long time."