Slain teen’s younger sister missing

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This article was published 03/04/2017 (3137 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tina Fontaine’s little sister, Sarah Fontaine, is missing.

The sister of the teen whose slaying sparked national outrage over missing and murdered indigenous women and girls disappeared over the weekend.

Oakbank RCMP issued a missing person’s bulletin Monday, describing Sarah, 16, as from the RM of Springfield. The bulletin said Sarah had last been seen Sunday about 11 a.m. in the Polo Park area of Winnipeg.

She is described as indigenous, 5-foot-3 with a heavier build. She was last seen wearing a pink hoodie, black pants with white lettering and was carrying a large, shiny red purse.

RCMP didn’t make the family connection public, but Sarah’s family did.

Sarah is the younger sister of Tina, the 15-year-old whose body was pulled from the Red River wrapped in plastic on Aug. 17, 2014.

Thelma Favel, great aunt to the sisters, said from her home on Sagkeeng First Nation that Tina’s disappearance and now Sarah’s have heartbreaking parallels that she can’t bear to think about.

“And now she’s missing, too… I don’t want her to end up like Tina,” Favel said, breaking down on the phone.

Sarah lost her father, her sister and a cousin to violent deaths.

Tina and Sarah were inseparable, Favel said, describing the toll Tina’s slaying and their father’s death had on Sarah.

“They moved her for her own safety because she had so many suicide attempts when she was here, because of all the memories of her dad and her sister and not knowing how to deal with them,” Favel said.

The girls’ father, Eugene Fontaine, was beaten to death on Sagkeeng on Oct. 31, 2011.

Favel had promised Eugene she and her husband would raise his two daughters if anything happened and the couple kept its word.

Two men ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Eugene’s death. Another man has been charged with Tina’s killing and is awaiting trial.

It was Eugene’s death that triggered Tina’s depression. Unable to cope, the Favels called on the child-welfare system for help and Tina was in the system at the time she went missing, as Sarah is now, Favel said.

Just a few weeks ago, Tina and Sarah’s cousin, Jeanenne Fontaine, 29, died after being shot in her Winnipeg home, which was then deliberately set on fire.

The family believes Sarah is in trouble, and described her as overwhelmed by tragedy.

For the last year, Sarah had been in foster care, most recently in Steinbach, and in counselling, but it hasn’t been enough, Favel said.

“She never got the counselling she was supposed to be getting. She was in a foster home, and she needed so much help with everything that happened to her, with her dad being murdered, her sister. And then Jeanenne Fontaine being shot and set on fire,” Favel said.

Favel said the most precious thing in Sarah’s life is her baby.

Sarah got pregnant after Tina’s slaying and was in a foster placement that allowed her to keep the baby with her, Favel said. Sarah’s year-old baby, Victoria Tina Lynn, is named after her sister, Favel said.

“Once her sister died, she wanted her own family so she decided to have a baby, even though she so young. But she is a good mother, a very good mother,” Favel said.

Last Thursday, mother and child showed up at Favel’s door in Sagkeeng, with Sarah behind the wheel of her foster-mother’s car.

“She just wanted to come home,” Favel said of the unannounced visit. But the car didn’t belong to Sarah, so Favel said she felt she had to call the RCMP. The authorities picked the pair up and separated them, Favel said.

“They took the baby away from her and that’s the thing that’s hurting her most,” Favel said.

She said Sarah phoned the Favels Sunday night.

“She was pretty well out of it, drunk, partying. There was a bunch of guys you could hear in the background,” Favel said.

Sarah didn’t say where she was. “She hung up right away.”

At the time, the Favels had no idea Sarah was missing.

“Her own CFS worker didn’t have the decency to phone me and tell me she was missing,” Favel said.

If she could speak to Sarah, Favel would tell her: “Go back to the foster home. They are going to work with you to get baby back,” Favel said.

Sagkeeng is about 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

— with files from The Canadian Press

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca