Friend baffled Glenboro woman missing

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This article was published 24/02/2021 (1155 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Levi Waldner sat down for coffee in Anna and Herb Marquart’s house in Glenboro last July, and when he left, everything seemed fine.

Waldner said Wednesday he was one of the last people to see Anna before she disappeared on July 4.

“I just found that out (Tuesday),” Waldner said by phone. “I didn’t know that until then.

“I saw both of them there. I went over every second month. You would call in, they still had a phone and the gate was locked. You phoned and Anna would come out and unlock the gate and then lock it when you came in. And when you left, Anna would unlock the gate and lock it after you left.

“Everything seemed fine. They seemed normal to me. I didn’t leave with the impression she was going to leave.

“We had coffee and cake and everything seemed nice.”

RCMP announced earlier this week 31-year-old Anna Marquart had been reported missing on Feb. 4. She was last seen leaving her residence on July 4, and has had no contact with family in either Manitoba or Ontario since then.

RCMP said they can’t say why it took months for the woman to be reported missing, but admit it makes finding her tougher because physical evidence deteriorates and people’s memories fade.

“We continue to investigate her as a missing person,” RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel said. “If anyone has information, please contact the RCMP.”

Marquart, née Bauman, is described as 5-1 and 119 pounds, with light brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information should call Blue Hills RCMP at 204-726-7519, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or provide a secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.

It’s not the first time Marquart has been in the news.

CBC reported that Anna and her sister, Emma Bauman, left the province’s only Old Order Mennonite community in 2013, alleging they had suffered sexual abuse throughout their lives.

The CBC reported that after the pair and Herb Marquart helped a boy under 14 years of age run away from a foster home in the community, they were charged under the Child and Family Service Act. Herb Marquart was sentenced to jail and probation while the sisters received 18-month suspended sentences. Anna and Herb married after he got out of jail.

During the early afternoon interview, Waldner said he had just driven past the Marquart place a few minutes earlier.

“There’s horses and cattle there. Someone must be feeding them,” he said.

“We’ve had some snow here and there are fresh tracks there, so someone is there. I’d have gone in a long time ago, but they have a big dog the same size as me and it is vicious. I wasn’t going to take a chance.”

Waldner said a relative of Anna in Ontario has called him a few times in recent months, asking him if he had seen her and saying she hasn’t been seen down there either.

He said he has asked around Glenboro, but no one has seen Anna.

“What can I say? I’m worried. But what can you do if they don’t want to be talked to? But if she was some place, somebody would have seen her.”

Glenboro is 160 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca