She spent two years at Guy Hill Residential School,[1] just outside The Pas, Manitoba, a culturally mixed town of European Canadians, Métis and Cree people.
She was walking home at approximately 2:30 a.m. when she was abducted, repeatedly raped, brutally beaten, stabbed with a screwdriver over 50 times, and murdered.
[2][3] The following day, Kenny Gurba, a fourteen-year-old from The Pas, MB, grew tired of fishing and went off looking for rabbit tracks when he discovered Helen Betty’s unclothed body.
[5] Dwayne Archie Johnston, James Robert Paul Houghton, Lee Scott Colgan and Norman Bernard Manger, four young white men from The Pas, were eventually implicated in her death.
The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission conducted an investigation into concerns surrounding the length of time involved in resolving the case.
According to the Commission report, Osborne's autopsy showed that "along with well over 50 stab wounds, her skull, cheekbones and palate were broken, her lungs were damaged, and one kidney was torn.
[citation needed] Robert Munsch, a renowned Canadian author of children's books, discussed his experience of being walked to the grave of Helen Betty Osborne one year before her perpetrators were captured.
He discussed how this single incident led to a complete evolution not only in his writing as a children's author, but also in his investment into culture, the direction of his philanthropy, and especially in his philosophy of life.