Missing woman’s body found on Turtle Mountain Reservation
Alayzia Parisien, Kristin Bruce and Ron Delorme, who helped raise Kristin since she was a toddler, enjoy a family breakfast, March 2022. / Photo courtesy of Parisien
Alayzia Parisien recalls taking many road trips with her mom. The pair would usually leave from the Belcourt, North Dakota, area to watch sports games near and far.
“We were always traveling,” Parisien, 23, told Buffalo’s Fire. “We took a trip to the East Coast and hit the Wisconsin Dells, Niagara Falls, Boston and New York. In December, we went to the West Coast, to San Francisco, for a 49ers game. She was a huge 49ers fan.”
The mother and daughter team also caught the NFL team in Seattle once (where, to their chagrin, the Seahawks beat San Francisco in the final minutes of the game).
“Mom really loved her football, and lots of other sports,” said Parisien with a light laugh. “We also did Lakers games, lots of traveling around. We hit Denver three times a year. Just because it’s a nice area.”
Parisien was with the search team that found her mother’s body on June 6. Rolette County authorities said 44-year-old Kristin Bruce was last seen on May 27 riding a bike in the Green Acres area of the Turtle Mountain Reservation around 10 p.m., along BIA Road 10. The bike was found in a ditch a few days later.
“She wasn’t really a biker, but she didn’t have a driver’s license,” said Parisien, who explained that her mom was off to see a friend that evening. She said she can’t go into further detail as the FBI is continuing its investigation. The family has also agreed not to reveal specifics about the circumstances in which they found Bruce’s body, as investigators are still reviewing her death.
An FBI Minneapolis spokesperson told Buffalo’s Fire that officials do not believe there is a threat to public safety.
A GoFundMe that had been set up to fund search efforts has been changed to cover funeral expenses.
“I was out of work for a week and a half,” said Parisien, recalling how her efforts to find her mother took up much of her focus and time. “This will be to try and alleviate some financial stress.”
An exact date for Bruce’s funeral hasn’t been set, as the family is waiting for an autopsy to be completed.
With the discovery of Bruce’s body, Parisien and others can stop wondering about her fate and begin the grieving process.
“It does give closure,” said Parisien. “We went through this with her brother Joe in 2018. We didn’t learn anything with him or his remains until a year later.”
Joe Bruce disappeared while traveling to see his son at a Minneapolis hospital in June 2018. He was last seen in the Devils Lake area of North Dakota. His remains were found on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.
Parisien said that while the discovery of her mother’s body was not the resolution they had hoped for, it does provide some peace.
As to any further reflections on her late mom, Parisien says Bruce was “full of life.”
“She was a big kid, that’s what everyone loved about her. That’s why so many of the family’s kids stayed close.”
Authorities urge anyone with information about Bruce’s death to contact the FBI at 763-569-8000 or tips.fbi.gov.
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