Doctors' group lifts reward in Morrisseau slaying to $14,000

There is now a $14,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the slaying of a pregnant Ottawa woman last December, thanks to a $10,000 donation from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

The society is topping up the reward for information about the slaying of 27-year-old Kelly Morrisseau because of the Ottawa-based group's commitment to women's and aboriginal health, said Dr. André Lalonde, executive vice-president of the society, in an Assembly of First Nations news release issued Thursday.

"I am completely appalled at the lack of response in Ottawa and by the community at large," Lalonde said in a statement. "Not only have we lost a young First Nations woman, we have also suffered the loss of her unborn child. These two dynamics combined are unacceptable."

Last week, the Assembly of First Nations and Crimestoppers announced that they were each putting $2,000 toward a reward in the Morrisseau case.

At the time, National Chief Phil Fontaine said hundreds of First Nations women have died violently in the past 30 years, but have generated less attention and smaller rewards than in other slayings.

Kelly Morrisseau, who lived in Ottawa but grew up on the Sagkeeng First Nation, north of Winnipeg, had three children and was seven months pregnant when she was found near death in Gatineau Park by a passerby on Dec. 10.