Arrest made in death of Tina Fontaine

Fontaine, lonely and confused over the earlier death of her father, ran away from her Winnipeg hotel and was “highly vulnerable and exploited while on the run”, said Winnipeg Deputy Chief Danny Smyth. That provincial program has been under intense scrutiny for placing children in foster care in hotels without proper supervision.

“This has been an incredibly hard and emotional time for Tina’s family, and for the entire communities of Sagkeeng First Nation and Winnipeg”, Bowman said in a statement.

“I think Canadians expected the government to act and put in place measures to prevent this in the future”, Bennett said. The girl had a history of running away and went to Winnipeg about a month before her death to visit her biological mother.

“I don’t know the Tina that was in the city”, she said.

August 8, 2014: Winnipeg police come into contact with Fontaine when she is in a vehicle that two officers pull over, but do not take her into custody.

At this point, officers say there are no other pending charges against Cormier related to other missing cases at this point.

“I cried so hard, and laughing at the same time”, said Thelma of the moment Winnipeg Police told her they made an arrest in the killing of her great-nice. “They don’t always take it seriously, they dismiss families, they’re sarcastic, they don’t believe them and in Tina’s case specifically, the police actually saw her and let her go”, she said.

“She’s a child. This is a child that’s been murdered”, Sgt. John O’Donovan said when Tina’s body was found.

Favel said Tina was kept for a few hours until she sobered up, then social workers picked her up at the hospital.

She ran away again and was found in the river a little over a week later.

“Society would be horrified if we found a litter of kittens or pups in the river in this condition”.

Add Your Voice Is there more to this story?