Memorial walk held for Tanya Brooks

About a dozen people walked in a memorial Tuesday to Tanya Brooks, a 35-old year-old Mi'kmaq woman from Millbrook who was found slain in Halifax two years to the day.

Halifax Regional Police say no progress has been made in their investigation, and her family is pleading with the public for help.

"We lost our best friend…and it's very hard for us," said Stanley Brooks, Tanya's brother.

He bowed his head, his long jet-black ponytail swinging over his shoulder, and sobbed quietly as he talked about his sister.

Stanley Brooks and a small group of mostly Mi'kmaq women sang traditional songs as they walked in the rain up Gottingen Street from the Mi'kmaq Friendship Centre to the main Halifax Regional Police station.

Connie Brooks Adams, Tanya's mother, said her daughter had a tough life, getting involved in drugs, alcohol and the sex trade. But she said that shouldn't stop anyone from helping to find her daughter's killer.

Brooks Adams said the police have no leads and she is getting little help.

"They're not giving me no answers. They're not phoning me and updating me. And it's two years today," Brooks Adams said.

Tanya Brooks last talked to her mother on Mother's Day 2009. A teacher at St. Patrick's-Alexandra School found her beaten, broken body dumped in a window well behind of the school on May 10, 2009.

A man living nearby said he had seen a gang of men following a woman down an alley the night Brooks was killed.

Stanley Brooks said things would be different if his sister had been a white woman.

"There should be a lot more police investigations. They should actually give a f--k about native women instead of just non-native women, white people," he said. "We're treated like garbage in our own land."

Doreen Bernard, who calls herself a Mi'kmaq grassroots grandmother, is helping the family. She said Tanya's story is not unique in Nova Scotia.

"There are other aboriginal women, Mi'kmaq women and young girls, that have been murdered and have gone missing," she said.

Tanya's mother still can't believe her daughter is one of those statistics.

"It's been awful. Not knowing is worse because I expect her to come in the door. I expect her to phone me. She don't. I looked for her here today because I can't believe she's gone," Brooks Adams said.

The Brooks family said Tanya was off drugs in 2009, and was planning to go back to school in order to get a good job so she could take care of her five children.