SASKATOON-
A woman who was reported missing with her seven-year-old son is facing criminal charges in Canada and the United States.
Saskatoon police said they charged 38-year-old Dawn Marie Walker with public harm and parental kidnapping in violation of a custody order.
They said the US Department of Homeland Security also charged her with felony knowingly presenting someone else’s passport and misdemeanor possessing an ID that was stolen or produced illegally.
Walker and her son were reported missing last month, but police said they were found safe in Oregon City on Friday after allegedly crossing the border illegally.
The boy was returned to Canada on Sunday after being picked up by a legal guardian, police said.
Walker remains in custody in Oregon, where he was scheduled to appear in court Monday on the US charges. Saskatoon Police said officials are working to extradite her to Canada to face the other crimes.
“As the criminal investigation progresses, there may be more charges that Ms. Walker will face as a result,” Saskatoon Deputy Police Chief Randy Huisman said Monday.
“Investigators are looking at several different charges, and in relation to the false identity documents that were alluded to, and how she was able to prepare those documents.”
Police said they began searching for Walker and her son on July 24 after friends reported them missing.
His red Ford F-150 pickup had been found abandoned days earlier in Chief Whitecap Park, just south of Saskatoon, along with some of his personal belongings.
RCMP assisted in the search on the South Saskatchewan River near the park, using ground, air and water crews, while providing daily updates to Walker’s family who attended the searches.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, where Walker served as its executive director, had organized a vigil and walks through the park to raise awareness of the disappearance.
The federation also issued its own Amber Alert for Walker and her son, calling on police to do the same. Police said there was no evidence to suggest they were in imminent danger.
“An Amber Alert did not fit the criteria at the provincial or local level,” Huisman said. “That person must be at imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death, and we didn’t have that in this case. If we followed the guidelines at the provincial and local levels, he still would not have met the parameters.”
On Friday, two weeks after Walker was last seen at a business in Saskatoon, police announced that she had been found “well and well” with her son in Oregon City, a community on the southern edge of Portland, Oregon.
Huisman said Walker was found in a rental unit.
The boy’s family released a statement Saturday saying “for the last two weeks of hell” all they had wanted was the safe return of Walker and the boy.
“When we found out they were both safe, there was sobbing, laughing, dancing, screaming, throwing shoes and hugs. Even though we weren’t together, the family celebrated together. It feels like we can finally breathe,” she said. the boy’s family said.
Walker, who is from the Okanese First Nation, is also a well-known author. His recent book “The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour,” published under the name Dawn Dumont, was named last week as a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humor.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 8, 2022.
— By Mickey Djuric in Regina