Dad shocked 14-year-old boy charged in daughter’s death

A father grieving the loss of his 18-year-old daughter says he was stunned to learn a 14-year-old boy is accused in her slaying.

“It’s just so sad,” said the father, whose daughter was a ward of Child and Family Services and can’t be named.

The Winnipeg Police Service announced Wednesday that a 14-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal negligence causing death. The teen was arrested Tuesday after homicide detectives identified a suspect.

“It’s just shocking. I would not expect it to be a 14-year-old,” the father said. “He hasn’t even begun his life yet.

“And what was a 14 year old doing at that house?”

Police said the 18-year-old woman was found dead at a home on the 500 block of Young Street at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

The father said he first learned of his daughter’s death from people who knew her. An official with a CFS agency later confirmed her death after he called the group home where she had been living.

He said he does not know the accused.

At the Spence neighbourhood scene on Wednesday, a piece of police tape remained affixed to a chain-linked fence in front of a home.

“It’s just shocking. I would not expect it to be a 14-year-old… He hasn’t even begun his life yet.”

A nearby business owner said they arrived to work on Saturday morning to a police car sitting on Young Street, with the area taped off.

A neighbour down the street from the home said he saw a forensics vehicle parked out front later that day.

Investigators were seen Wednesday entering a next-door apartment complex before working their way south to a second apartment building.

While the arrest has brought a measure of relief, the woman’s father said, it does little to ease the turmoil engulfing the family.

“I’m trying to keep myself together,” the 39-year-old man said. “I can’t really fall apart. And then all the planning and (funeral) arrangements, numerous phone calls. It hasn’t left a lot of time to grieve.”

He noted his daughter was taken into the child welfare system’s care when she was one or two years old, after the family moved to Manitoba.

He said she grew up in the CFS system, spending time in foster and group homes.

“She was always full of smiles for most of the time in her life,” he previously told the Free Press. “She was always a happy person, and she was kind-hearted. She wanted to fix her life up.”

Mitch Bourbonniere, a founding member of the original Bear Clan Patrol who has dedicated much of his career and personal time to mentoring and counselling at-risk youth, said the demographic of young people in the CFS system are at a higher risk for serious outcomes.

“When you don’t grow up in your own family, your own community, when you go through a system that can be harsh, when supports change or you lose support or you’re not really in control of your life and you’re still a young person at 18, but now you’re expected to be an adult, it’s just a higher risk group for almost anything — suicide, homicide, addiction, mental health, overdose — all of it,” he said.

“It’s heartbreaking because I’ve worked my whole career 40 years with kids that have survived the Child and Family Services system.”

Bourbonniere said supports have improved, but those in the CFS system are still expected to find their own way.

“They’re left on their own, and some of them don’t have family, don’t have a social network to rely on, don’t have an older, wiser adult in their life that can guide them. Maybe these young people end up in some really rough neighbourhoods and really rough housing.

“So you just worry. You worry about these kids. It’s heartbreaking.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca