Awful questions on top of grief

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This article was published 07/07/2009 (5916 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was no terrible phone call.

There was no scary dream. But Barbara Houle had an unshakeable feeling last Friday something terrible had happened to her 17-year-old daughter Cherisse.

She was right. Hearing media reports of a young woman’s body discovered in the RM of Rosser, Houle said she called police to tell them about her daughter’s hand tattoo and a birthmark on her lower back.

Hours later, police confirmed the terrible fact. Her youngest child, the family baby, was the girl lying face down in the creek.

This winter, Barbara Houle attended a rally for another missing aboriginal woman. Jennifer Catcheway of Portage la Prairie went missing last June after failing to arrive at her 19th birthday party. Her family fears they will never see her again.

"I told my best friend, ‘I hope to God I never have to go through what they’re going through,’ " Houle said. Now, she is. "I just want somebody to tell me what happened to (Cherisse)."

Today, as with the Catcheways, Cherisse’s 18th birthday party won’t happen.

Instead, at noon, Barbara Houle will attend another memorial, this one for her daughter. It’s at the legislature.

RCMP said Cherisse’s body was found lying face down last Wednesday in Sturgeon Creek, 50 metres from Provincial Road 221 about 16 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

Police have asked for information about where Cherisse was on or after June 26.

Relatives said if she’d hit her 18th birthday and beyond, Cherisse wanted to become a social worker and help other teenage girls.

The petite 5-3 teen with silky dark hair was trying was to exit a difficult lifestyle and grappling with addiction, said family.

"(My daughter) did have problems she was working on. She really wanted to change her life, better herself, so she could be a better parent to her son," said Barbara Houle.

For the past three or four months, they said she lived in transitional housing on McDermot Avenue and was involved in programming at Ka Ni Kanichihk, a downtown aboriginal counselling and job-training service.

Cherisse Houle was the mother of an 18-month-old child, Traden.

He lived in the care of a maternal relative, said family, though Cherisse wanted to parent him full-time eventually.

Cherisse loved to listen to music and write, said her 21-year-old brother Jordan Houle, leaving messages scrawled in his books.

"If there was notepad, sitting there, she’s just grab it," he said.

"Every now and then, I’d grab my notebooks, and I’d see what she wrote in it."

He, too, feared for the worst when he heard a body was found.

He feels he failed his "compassionate" sister, his eyes welling when he talks about how he feels responsible for her death.

"I can’t believe someone would have that much disregard for a human being," he said.

"That’s somebody’s daughter. That’s somebody’s mom. That’s somebody’s cousin, auntie."

Sources confirmed to the Free Press Houle was a street-involved youth in CFS care.

She had extensive court involvement and was a chronic runaway, they said.

She may have also been involved in the sex trade around the time of her death, said a source.

Her family fears Cherisse Houle’s death will not be treated seriously by the public if she’s stereotyped as a sex-trade worker.

"She was deeply loved. She had a lot of family that helped her. She wasn’t just some girl… we cared about her," said Barbara Houle.

Her daughter kept in regular contact with her siblings and mother, checking in every few days.

Carla Bruyere, a family friend, is the aunt of Fonessa Bruyere, a 17-year-old who was murdered in August 2007.

She said young women like Fonessa Bruyere and Cherisse Houle are preyed upon and treated like they are disposable.

No arrests were made in connection with Fonessa Bruyere’s death after her body was dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of the city.

On Wednesday afternoon — two days before Cherisse was reported missing to Winnipeg police after she didn’t show up at her home — she stopped by her sister Jessica Houle’s West End apartment in a pink-and-red dress. The two sisters visited with their mother there and discussed plans for Cherisse’s birthday party.

Barbara Houle said she believes her daughter was not killed as part of a gang dispute and the attack was "random." Cherisse Houle was not raped or beaten, the family said police told them.

They are still awaiting toxicology results they said could take up to two months to return.

The province’s medical examiner’s office has released Cherisse’s body after an autopsy, said her relatives.

A wake is planned for Wednesday and a funeral is planned for Thursday, said family. Her body will be cremated, said her mother.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca