RCMP tight-lipped on McCreary triple homicide; Kinew points to help for people fleeing violence

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This article was published 19/08/2024 (433 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A triple homicide in a western Manitoba community last week will bring a call to action to try to prevent similar tragedies in the future, Premier Wab Kinew told reporters Monday.

Two men and a woman were found dead at a home near McCreary on Friday, after a 41-year-old man was found dead with a self-inflicted injury on a rural road nearby.

“The terrible tragedy in McCreary is something that, I think, affects all of us as Manitobans,” Kinew said at an unrelated event in Thompson. “It’s a terrible situation that we never expect to see in a province like ours.”

He said Rick Sonnenberg, reeve of the Rural Municipality of McCreary, expressed surprise, when the pair spoke Friday.

“He never thought something like that would happen in his hometown,” said Kinew. “All of us react first, I think, with the shock and then the concern, and then we’re called to action to say how can we prevent things like this from happening again in the future?”

He said the NDP government has been putting funds toward prevention initiatives and resources for people who need to flee violent situations.

RCMP have so far released few details about the incident. Police have not yet commented on a suspected motive nor have they released the names of the four people who died.

Spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said autopsies were pending as of Monday morning.

She said police should be in a position to update the public on the ongoing investigation later this week, once autopsies are completed.

RCMP said officers from the Ste. Rose du Lac detachment received a call at about 10 a.m. Friday, after the 41-year-old man was found dead on Road 84 West in the RM of McCreary.

About 30 minutes later, officers were asked to do a well-being check on a 37-year-old woman. She was not home when they visited, said RCMP.

Officers then went to a nearby house, southeast of the community of McCreary, to look for the woman. When they arrived, they found the bodies of two men, ages 35 and 65, and a 66-year-old woman. Their deaths are being investigated as homicides.

RCMP said the 37-year-old woman was found safe at about 1 p.m., and then taken to hospital as a precaution.

All five people are related, said police, who are not looking for additional suspects.

McCreary had a population of about 750 people in the 2021 Census. The community is about 230 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

Local MLA Jodie Byram said there are very close-knit ties in small communities such as McCreary.

“This is a significant impact to that town. Just a tragic loss,” the Progressive Conservative MLA for Agassiz said.

Byram said she spoke to Sonnenberg on Monday to extend her sympathies to the community and her gratitude to first responders who attended the “unimaginable tragedy.”

She said the community will need resources to help people process what happened and support them while they grieve.

“Small communities come together,” said Byram. “They can rally and find strength within each other. My thoughts are with the community and those families that were involved.”

In February, a mother and four children who lived in Carman were found dead in multiple locations in southern Manitoba.

They were identified as Amanda Clearwater, 30, her three children — two-month-old Isabella, four-year-old Jayven and six-year-old Bethany — and her 17-year-old cousin, Myah-Lee Gratton.

Clearwater’s 29-year-old common-law partner, Ryan Manoakeesick, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder. He was declared mentally fit to stand trial.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca