Why we may never know what happened to Traci Genereaux

RCMP have confirmed the investigation into the death of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux still remains open, despite the fact that the man assumed to be the main suspect has died.

Curtis Sagmoen died in a Vernon motel room last month, almost eight years after Genereaux’s remains were discovered on his family’s rural North Okanagan property in October 2017.

“We’re all pretty sure he was the one that did it,” Genereaux’s grandmother Darcy Martin told iNFOnews.ca.

Martin said police have never told her how or when Genereaux died.

“All we know is when she went missing and when she was found and where she was found,” Martin said.

The 18-year-old went missing in May 2017, her remains were found five months later.

Sagmoen had a history of violence towards women and was always assumed to have been the main suspect, although he was never charged in Genereaux’s death.

As the investigation remains open, we may never know how Genereaux died and the extent to which Sagmoen was a suspect.

The BC Coroners Service won’t release the report into Genereaux’s death while the investigation remains open, and because the investigation is open, the RCMP won’t comment further.

This leaves Genereaux’s death open to speculation.

However, there is no doubt police thought Sagmoen was a suspect in something, otherwise police wouldn’t have conducted a week-long search of his family’s Salmon River Road property. It was during that search they uncovered Genereaux’s body.

Four other women had also gone missing in the area, Ashley Simpson, Deanna Wertz, Caitlin Potts and Nicole Bell. Simpson’s boyfriend Derek Favell was later convicted of Simpson’s murder. The three other women still remain missing. There’s nothing to suggest their disappearances are connected but many have been left to wonder.

In the months leading up to his arrest, and the search of his parent’s property, Sagmoen was involved in several violent acts towards women.

Sagmoen was charged for an alleged assault on a sex worker that took place July 1 2017, but it was later stayed.

In 2018, he was convicted for the 2013 assault where he hit a sex worker with a hammer in a dispute over money. He was sentenced to 30 days jail, but was already in custody. At the time the sex worker didn’t want to pursue the matter and it was the neighbours who called the police saying a woman was being chased by a man yelling that he’d hit her with a hammer.

While Sagmoen was eventually convicted of numerous attacks on women, the longest sentence he was given was two years, and he was largely out of custody after December 2019.

However, he did breach he is probation on a number of occasions and his movements appear to have been closely watched by the RCMP.

In December 2023, he was convicted for contacting a sex worker and possessing a cell phone and drugs – all violations of his probation order. And last year, he spent four days in jail after police found an old shotgun cartridge in his glovebox.

During a search of his parents home in 2022, Sagmoen was charged with assaulting a police officer. However, the charge was later stayed and the court heard how he’d slammed into the officer while under arrest and in handcuffs.

For more stories on Curtis Sagmoen go here.