Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 09/02) - Police say recent rumours of two random assaults of women walking on Frame Lake Trail are unsubstantiated.

This word comes after three women told Yellowknifer last week that they had heard of two recent attacks against women on trail. One woman, they heard, was beaten so badly that her teeth were knocked out and she had to be medevaced out of Yellowknife for medical attention.

When contacted last week, police refused to confirm or deny the reports. Sgt. Al McCambridge said assaults have occurred on the Frame Lake in the past, but said he could not confirm any recent attacks unless he pulled up every police file from this year, which currently is in excess of 4,000.

RCMP Cpl. Bruce McGregor did just that.

"We went back and checked our records because we were obviously concerned with the article that you printed there.

"None of us over here knew anything about this matter so we checked our records, we checked with GIS (General Investigation Section), (and) we checked with Medevac Services. We did all our homework and there was nothing. There were no complaints made or reports within the last year," said McGregor.

McGregor said he encourages anyone who has been assaulted on the Frame Lake Trail to report the incident to police so the matter can be investigated.

"If there is a crime wave we certainly would like to be aware of it and look into it," he said.