Sask. RCMP saw 27 per cent jump in homicide cases in 2024, setting record

Mounties in Saskatchewan responded to a record number of homicides last year, with 38 separate cases and a total of 40 victims.

According to the RCMP, the figures from 2024 represent a 27 per cent increase over the numbers from 2023. The majority of the homicide cases — 22 in total — happened in the northern district of the province.

Read more:

The RCMP said the 38 homicide cases seen in 2024 — which include cases of first- and second-degree murder as well as manslaughter — led to charges against 36 people — 25 men and 11 women.

The number of homicide files investigated by Saskatchewan Mounties has been climbing steadily over the past few years, with 30 files in 2020, 31 in 2021 and 33 in 2022. Between January 1 and Jan. 27, 2025, the RCMP said Saskatchewan officers have investigated two homicide files.

Homicide cases often involve lengthy and complex investigations, which can be taxing for police, especially when a number of cases occur within a short time span.

In 2024, the RCMP said there were four instances when Mounties were called to three or more homicide investigations within a week, including five separate homicide cases between Feb. 1 and Feb. 5.

“Concern for the wellness of our investigators and having the capacity to continue investigating unsolved files — including both recent and historical ones — is significant when our deployment numbers are high,” said RCMP superintendent Josh Graham, who leads the Saskatchewan RCMP’s major crimes division.

“We want to provide answers to victim’s families and the reality is, we only have so many specially-trained investigators. We can’t dedicate the time we need to complex, unsolved investigations when faced with deployments to so many new ones.”

Violent crimes on the rise in Saskatchewan

Since the pandemic Graham said RCMP has seen murder and violent crime rates rise, like substance abuse and mental health issues have gone up.

“I think it’s a worry of any police officer and any person in society, when violent crime goes up,” he said.

“Even though you may not be affected by violent crime, it’s something that affects everybody overall because the more violence that occurs, obviously that puts a lot of strain on the health care system, on the justice system and general society as well.

“It’s definitely concerning when we see the homicide rate, the violent crime rate go up. It basically really stretches our resources, investigatively, certainly to a significant degree.”

Graham said it can challenging for the major crimes unit to continue their work among staffing shortages within RCMP.

“Our investigators are very dedicated” he said. “They work very hard on these investigations, and they clearly want to do the best that they can to bring closure for victims and that that beginning of some sense of justice. So essentially, for us, it results in a little more burnout (and) frustration.”

In northern communities, Graham said many people with Indigenous ancestry are dealing with mental health and substance issues on top of people coping with colonization, disenfranchisement, and lack of supports.

According to the Mounties, 45 per cent of people had court-ordered conditions or supervision at the time the alleged offence of murder was committed. Two others were wanted on outstanding warrants.

“I think it makes all of the investigators feel obviously frustrated, and probably a sense that we maybe these homicides could have been avoided if offenders were in custody rather than being out in the community,” Graham said.

According to Graham, in 2014 the Saskatchewan RCMP’s homicide investigations included just eight victims.

In a recent interview on The Evan Bray Show, assistant commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, said addictions and mental health issues are at the root of many of the homicide cases investigated by the Mounties.

Listen to the full interview with Rhonda Blackmore:

<a href="http://iono.fm/e/1518969">Content hosted by iono.fm</a>

“So much of violent crime is linked to other issues, be it drugs, be it firearm trafficking, intimate partner violence,” Blackmore told Bray.

“Those are, in many, many cases, the underlying issues – mental health issues. And we see that manifesting itself in escalations and, unfortunately, sometimes results in homicide. We need to look at the root causes and the core issues, and if we can start to get a handle on some of those issues, not just from a policing perspective, because in many of those cases we’re not going to arrest our way out of those problems.”

The RCMP said that of the 36 people charged in connection with last year’s homicide cases, almost half – 45 per cent – were “subject to court-ordered conditions or supervision at the time of the offence and two were wanted on outstanding warrants.”

The Mounties noted that homicide numbers can change, even more than a year later, as investigations progress.

— with files from CJME’s Gillian Massie

Read more: