Fontaine family suffers more grief

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This article was published 16/03/2017 (3130 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One family, two generations of tragedy, four brutal deaths.

Now family members of Tina Fontaine are once again seeking answers to the many questions they have, this time about the slaying earlier this week of her cousin Jeanenne Chantel Fontaine.

“It’s just like it’s starting all over again, only with someone else,” Thelma Favel, Tina and Jeanenne’s great aunt, said Thursday from her Sagkeeng First Nation home.

“I don’t know what was happening with her out there, but when I last saw (Jeanenne) in January she was the same sweet and pleasant little girl I’ve always known.”

Favel said Jeanenne, 29, was the mother of two girls and a boy.

Chuck Fontaine, Jeanenne’s older brother, said he’s hoping the person who killed his sister is “brought to justice so my mom and my other sister and me can have closure.

“I hope these animals are found and they get what’s coming to them, for they took away an angel from a family who has already went through so much.”

Tina’s body was pulled from the Red River inside a duvet cover in August 2014, eight days after the 15-year-old Child and Family Services ward ran away from her foster home.

Jeanenne died Wednesday, a day after she was shot in the head and her North End home was set on fire.

Tina’s death made national headlines and put Manitoba’s child-welfare system under the microscope.

Raymond Cormier, 54, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Tina’s slaying.

Violence has been a constant for the Fontaine family in recent years. Tina’s 41-year-old father, Eugene — Jeanenne’s uncle — was beaten to death Oct. 31, 2011. His body was found behind a garden shed in Sagkeeng First Nation.

Two years ago, two men were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Family members have said through the years they believe Eugene’s slaying devastated Tina and put her on the path to her own death. And some of them have also questioned whether Jeanenne’s own brush with the law played a role in her young cousin’s grisly death.

Jeanenne pleaded guilty last November for her role in an alleged human-trafficking incident at a Furby Street apartment from May 20 to June 1, 2015.

Jeanenne, who was 27 at the time, admitted to taking photos of a 17-year-old girl so they could be posted on a website advertising escort services. She pleaded guilty to advertising sexual services and the human-trafficking charge against her was dropped. She was sentenced to 323 days in custody and was released last December on time served. She was still under a three-year probation order and was scheduled to enter a residential treatment program when she died.

Her co-accused, Jesse Thomas, is headed to trial in September on allegations that he forced an underage girl into the sex trade and provided her with drugs.

Two other men, twin brothers, were also charged with human trafficking. Eric Wirffel pleaded guilty to receiving a material benefit from sexual services and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Charges against Clinton Wirffel were dropped after a preliminary inquiry last June.

At Jeanenne’s sentencing, the court heard how her past mirrored the experiences of the underage girl she said she was forced to photograph.

“I just want to say I’m sorry for my actions and I want to do better,” she told provincial court Judge Dale Schille in December.

“I want to be a mom. I want to be a better person.”

When she was 16 years old, Jeanenne’s father, Dennis St. Paul, was fatally shot by police.

Later that year, she was forced into the sex trade through an online chat service, having previously suffered sexual abuse as a child and witnessing daily alcohol abuse and domestic violence, according to a pre-sentence report filed in court, based on interviews with her and some family members.

She struggled with addictions, but completed a residential treatment program in May 2014, three months before Tina’s body was found.

She and Tina were close, “and the details surrounding (Tina’s) death continue to be a source of trauma for her,” the report’s author noted.

After Tina died, Jeanenne developed an addiction to methamphetamine to help her with “forgetting” what happened to her cousin, the report said. She said a drug dealer taught her how to provide escort services to support her drug habit, during which time she said she was raped multiple times.

She had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and severe anxiety.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said Thursday that homicide investigators have determined that the cause of Jeanenne’s death was attributed to events leading up to and including the deliberately set fire, but are waiting for autopsy results.

He said investigators haven’t yet determined whether Fontaine was targetted in the slaying and, at this point, aren’t linking the investigation with any others.

Anyone with information on Jeanenne’s slaying should call 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477), he said.

“This is a complex investigation and we are eager to know more,” he said.

Chuck said his sister had a free spirit and spoke her mind.

“She always brought a smile to everyone she came in contact with… Jen was just figuring out her life after she got out of jail. She was gonna go to a modelling career, which she was excited about.

“She was the baby of the three of us and we shouldn’t be burying her.”

Favel said she has spoken to her niece, Lana — Jeanenne’s mother — who also was living in the Aberdeen Avenue home. “It’s still a shock to her,” she said.

“She has nothing left. Not even any clothing. I want her to come back home, too.”

Favel said there will now be a traditional four-day wake for Jeanenne at Sagkeeng before her funeral.

“She will be buried close to Tina,” she said.

Favel said she has not set foot in Winnipeg since Tina’s body was pulled from the river because she believes the city is too dangerous for indigenous women. She wishes she had talked to Jeanenne in January about her concerns when she returned to Sagkeeng for the funeral of another family member.

“ ‘Leave Winnipeg and just come home.’ I wish I had said that when I saw her at the funeral,” Favel said.

“But I didn’t and now I’ll be attending her funeral.”

— with files from Ashley Prest

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca