Murdered Body of Teenage Girl Pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River

WINNIPEG –  CRIME – Winnipeg Police have identified the body of a 15 year old girl pulled from the Red River as Tina Fontaine. The young Anishinabek woman went missing a week ago, after running away from a foster home she was staying at. The body was found wrapped in a bag. Winnipeg Police are treating the incident as a homicide.

“This is the homicide of a little girl, as you can see from the pictures she is a petite little thing who just turned 15 years old,” said Winnipeg Police Sergeant John O’Donovan, from the homicide unit of the Winnipeg Police Service. “She’s definitely been exploited and taken advantage of and murdered and put into the river in this condition.”

The young woman was classed as an at-risk youth, and had a history of running away that dates back according to RCMP news releases to 2012.

It appears the root causes of the young woman’s issues may not have been fully addressed with social agencies.

Assembly of Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak states, “I am very deeply saddened and hurt that another of our children has been taken in the streets of Winnipeg. I cannot put into words the difficulties we have had in trying to work with governments to move on a public inquiry plan to begin drawing these matters out of the dark corners and into a light of understanding and healing for everyone”.

“If an inquiry saves even one life by drawing us into a better understanding of how to combat the tragedies that so deeply hurt our families, then why won’t governments at all levels step forward with us? Federal and provincial and municipal governments have to come to the table. We need everyone to take responsibility to bring change,” concludes the Manitoba Grand Chief.

The RCMP have released a report stating that over 1000 Aboriginal women across Canada are missing or murdered.