Mom’s killing still brings tears to daughters

The tears still come when Lacey Conrad talks about her mother.

Nov. 22 marked 15 years since a hunter found Leslie Ann Conrad's remains in a shallow grave in a wooded area of Kings County south of Wolfville. It had been seven weeks since she went missing from her Lower Wolfville home on Thanksgiving weekend.

The time that has passed also means that Lacey Conrad, now 29, has spent more of her life without her mother than with her.

“It's a really hard anniversary for me because of that, and there not being closure yet,” she said. “But I'm thankful for the time I did have with her.”

She said the strength to carry on is a trait she knows she got from her mother.

She has plenty of memories, including the time in the kitchen.

“I remember baking with her a lot,” she said.

There were cupcakes with chocolate icing, blueberry squares and cookies.

“I think she made most of our birthday cakes,” Conrad said. “We lived lean and there were four kids.”

RCMP issued another appeal Nov. 22 for people with information to come forward, but Conrad admits her optimism isn't as high as it once was.

“It's a tough question, because it's gone on for so long, and the longer it goes on, the less faith I have that something's going to happen,” she said. “But cold cases are solved after 25 years, so there's always that hope.

Her sister, Leah Profitt, says she doesn't see the investigation as linear, and “we have to get the right people in the right place at the right time, so I do have some optimism we will get that closure.”

She said so much time has passed that “it's almost like things are in two (eras). There's with Mom and there's without Mom. I'm really grateful for the time I had with her, but at the same time losing her gave me (forced me) to have to learn to live without her.”

She said the anniversary of their mother's death is not something they look forward to noting and talking about, “but if it doesn't matter to us, why should it matter to anyone else? That's what's most important to me. Somebody does know something, and any information that comes forward, we'd certainly appreciate it.”

She said she knows there is information in the community that has not yet been passed on to police.

Because there are two dates involved – the day their mother went missing and the day she was found – there are seven weeks that are profoundly difficult, not just a couple days. But, Profitt said, it's the milestones – birthdays, weddings, the birth of children – “that really hit you.”

Last year, they and their sister Nadea started a social media campaign called #forLes as a way to mark what would have been been their mother's 60th birthday. They asked people to use the hashtag while sharing their acts of joy and kindness,.

Lacey Conrad, Leah Profitt and Nadea Melenchuk say it's a better way to talk.

The main goal was to bring awareness to their mother's case and show a positive light during a difficult year in Nova Scotia.

It went well, they said.

“We can't really put an impact on it because it wasn't about us keeping track, but I think it brought a lot of joy to us, and to me specifically to see that other people were taking part,” Profitt said. “I think she would have enjoyed that people were doing something good.”

RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Marshall said police are still looking for information that can help them move the investigation forward.

“No bit of information is too small,” he said. “Sometimes people know things and they don't always come forward right away, but over the years they decide that it's time to come forward, they want to get it off their chest.”