A group of teenagers were at a house party in Thompson, Manitoba on Oct. 16, 1986. What was supposed to be a fun night turned into a nightmare when 15-year-old Kerrie Ann Brown disappeared from the party. Two days later, Brown was found murdered in the outskirts of town with evidence of sexual assault. The case remains unsolved.

Born and raised in Thompson and now living in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Kathleen Ricard met Brown just that summer. The two bonded despite the short time they knew each other. 

“We hung out, we had conversations, we talked, we were at parties together. We […] played car tag on the street. We did all this stuff together,” said Ricard when she described their friendship.

Last month, almost four decades later, Ricard published The Deafening Sound of Sorrow to tell Brown’s story. Ricard explained she first started writing the book in her twenties, but hid it in a box in her closet after realizing the book had no ending since the perpetrator had not been caught. 

In 2021, Ricard received a phone call from a childhood friend on the 35th anniversary of Brown’s murder urging her to finish the book. This time, Ricard explained, she wanted to focus on Brown’s life, not her murder or its perpetrators. 

“I realized when I was reading that first draft, there has to be something more to this story than [her being] the coldest murder case in Manitoba history. It always goes back to those monsters, and I always call them monsters,” she said. 

“I don’t know if her murder is ever going to be solved. Instead of focusing my hatred on that and my anger on that, I just switched it up. Let’s focus on her and what she did in the short period of time that she was here.”

Writing The Deafening Sound of Sorrow was not an easy process for Ricard. In a blog post, she described her chapter on what happened that night as “the hardest thing [she has] ever written.” 

“It’s brought back [the trauma] a little bit […] Maybe that was part of the thing of not wanting to go back to that box and opening that thing up, because I don’t think it made me heal. I think it brought back so many other things too, along with the good stuff,” she stated. 

Brown was born in Ontario in 1971 before her family relocated to Thompson. Ricard described her as cautious, shy and lovable, not a risk-taker or someone who would get into cars with strangers. Her murder was devastating and shocking to the community. 

Despite the tragedy, the community came together to make the best out of the situation. The teenagers formed a youth group and talked to students about the importance of safety and communication. They also raised a $10,000 scholarship in Brown’s name, which is still in place. Now a mother, Ricard continues to advocate for teenagers’ safety. 

“When my daughter was 15, she wanted to go to a party. That brought [memories of] Kerrie back […] Here in Estevan, Saskatchewan, you partied in fields. No GPS at this time, no nothing, so I made everybody exchange numbers,” said Ricard.

“The real message within the book is that people need to look out for each other, and it’s a good message for teenage girls and boys.”

The Deafening Sound of Sorrow can be purchased on Amazon. To learn more about Kathleen Ricard, visit kathleenricardauthor.ca.