Little Phoenix buried with love and tears

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This article was published 24/04/2009 (6186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Phoenix Sinclair should have been celebrating her ninth birthday Thursday.

Instead, her skeletal remains were placed inside a tiny white coffin, the top covered with pink flowers. Teddy bears, a ceramic angel and pretty wreaths surrounded her casket.

The murdered child was finally given what she has so long been denied, a funeral and a decent burial.

As most of this country knows, Phoenix was murdered four years ago by her mother and stepfather. She was under the ostensible care of CFS at the time, having spent much of her life in and out of foster care.

Phoenix was repeatedly battered, abused and neglected by Samantha Kematch and Karl McKay. She was dead nine months before anyone reported her missing.

The five-year-old’s body had been roughly buried near the Fisher River reserve garbage dump.

Phoenix became a symbol, both of human depravity and of the need to have a child-welfare system that puts the protection of children ahead of all other concerns.

On Thursday, more than 200 people gathered to pay a final tribute to the little girl, to affirm her spirit, to mourn together.

Pastor Tim Campbell led the service at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre, calling it a chance "to grieve and say goodbye."

Former foster parent Kim Edwards, considered an honorary mother by friends and family, struggled through her eulogy.

She remembered Phoenix as a child who was polite, loved to laugh, was bright and so very beautiful.

"She was so affectionate. She had a beauty that radiated," Edwards said as a low sobbing began in the room. "She had skin like a China doll."

She told the stories that should never have to be told at a funeral, of a baby’s blankie, of a two-year-old’s wish to learn to skateboard, of a puppy named Pretty. It is awful to bury any child and this child’s horrific end only made it more terrible.

Edwards’ son Andrew spoke next, remembering the girl who was like a little sister to him.

"She brought peace to our family," he said simply. "I miss her dearly and she’ll always be in my heart."

Throughout the room, mourners dabbed their eyes. Even the little children who had earlier been racing through the room dressed up in party dresses or little ties were subdued.

But it wasn’t just those closest to Phoenix who were moved to speak. Coun. Keith Sinclair from Fisher River reached out to the family, inviting them to hold a memorial service in the place where the child was tortured and dumped.

"We’ve all learned a terrible lesson," he said. It has long been rumoured that some people in Fisher River knew the girl was dead long before her body was found.

Justin Schell is a stranger to the family but the young man took the microphone to explain how Phoenix’s death has affected him.

He told the crowd he named his two-month-old daughter Annika Phoenix as a tribute.

"She reminds me how to behave and be a good father," he said. "I just want to keep remembering."

Ron Anderson was also at the funeral.

"Like a lot of people, I just can’t get over the heartbreak and the despair," he said. "I wanted to be part of a farewell to her. It’s broken the heart of so many people in this province, this country."

Anderson would like to organize a Phoenix Sinclair Memorial Day, preferably falling on the day of her murder.

"It would be a day for us to pause in our thinking and reflect on abuse as it applies not only to children, but to all people."

The service ended less than an hour after it had begun, grim-faced people filing out into the sunshine.

The tiny white box was placed in the back of a hearse and the funeral procession drove slowly away.

Her family buried her at Brookside cemetery in a properly marked grave. Purple balloons were released as she went into the ground.

It was another of the necessary steps to draw an end to this tragedy, the step that followed the litany of abuse, the discovery of her battered body, the criminal trial of her killers and the final release of her remains.

There’s still an inquest to come, one that will do well to explain how this travesty played out.

But yesterday, yesterday was for Phoenix and her family. She is in heaven, the pastor assured the mourners, and she’s safe and happy now.

 

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca