Curtis Sagmoen Is Dead: But the System Was Never Designed to Stop Him
On April 8, 2025, the RCMP announced the death of Curtis Sagmoen—a man long associated with violence against women, particularly sex workers and Indigenous women in the North Okanagan region. His death will not bring closure for the women he harmed or for the families still searching for answers. And while some will view this as the end of a chapter, the truth is more complex: the system that failed to stop him is still very much intact.
At BWSS, we’ve followed this case closely, documenting each development in our Curtis Sagmoen timeline. It reveals a troubling pattern—not just of individual violence, but of institutional limitations in addressing a known, serially violent man whose actions targeted some of the most marginalized women in this country.
Curtis Sagmoen was convicted of threatening a woman with a firearm in 2020. He had previous charges for violent offences against women he lured to the family property. The remains of Traci Genereaux were found nearby, yet no charges were laid in relation to her death or other missing women.
These are not just failures—they are symptoms of a system never built to deal with gendered, patterned violence like this. Police and courts rely on reactive, incident-based responses. But serial offenders like Sagmoen operate over time, targeting vulnerability and exploiting the gaps between jurisdictions, the mistrust between survivors and law enforcement, and the invisibility of women pushed to the margins.
The criminal legal system in Canada struggles to respond effectively to violence that is coercive, cumulative, and often silences its victims. Survivors are expected to navigate a complex and retraumatizing system, often without support or safety. And when they do come forward, they’re frequently met with disbelief, delays, or dismissal.
This is the reality. The system, as it stands, is not equipped to stop men like Curtis Sagmoen—until it’s far too late.
At BWSS, we continue to push for systemic transformation—not tweaks or reforms, but a fundamental shift in how we understand and respond to gender-based violence. We believe in centring survivors, investing in prevention, resourcing community-based responses, and building systems rooted in safety and justice—not surveillance and control.
Curtis Sagmoen is dead. But the women who lived in fear of him—and those still targeted by violence like his—deserve more than an obituary for a man who was never truly held to account.
They deserve action.
Explore our timeline of the case: Systemic Mistrust and the Continued Inadequacy of the Legal and Policing Systems
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