Central Alberta family of 6 missing, vehicle found abandoned in Calgary

A mother and her five children have gone missing from their home in central Alberta and their whereabouts have not been confirmed in nearly a month, RCMP said.

The Mani family of six consists of 39-year-old mother Winnie and her five children: Liliane, 24; Debra, 18; Israel, 15; Samuel, 14; Gabriel, 13.

RCMP said they were last living in the Meridian Beach area of Ponoka County and going to school in Lacombe.

RCMP got involved after the Lacombe Police Service was contacted by the school, which said the kids stopped showing up for class.

“We did receive our initial call from one of the schools where all the children had been removed from,” said RCMP media relations officer Troy Savinkoff. “The circumstances of all that are very strange.”

Police said Winnie last spoke with family over the phone on April 3, though the whereabouts of her and her children hasn’t been confirmed since mid-March.

On March 28, the Calgary police told Rimbey RCMP a 2013 Black Dodge Durango, registered to Winnie Mani, was found in the city on March 24.

The vehicle was abandoned in a private parking lot in southeast Calgary near the Bow Habitat Station. Police said personal possessions were found inside it.

The family home near Gull Lake was also abandoned.

Savinkoff said while the investigation hasn’t revealed anything nefarious, the situation is odd.

“It’s not normal for a family to abandon their home, abandoned a vehicle — there were effects in that vehicle — and then just move on and not have any contact with the roots or a lot of people that they knew or spoke to where they used to reside.”

Savinkoff said of course, people can up and move on their own accord but it’s concerning when there are so many kids involved.

The situation does not warrant an Amber