RCMP builds timeline to fatal border-crossing

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This article was published 19/01/2023 (995 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RCMP officers are trying to fill in a two-day gap while tracing the movements of a family who froze to death trying to walk across the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson a year ago.

Investigators marked Thursday’s anniversary with some new details and a fresh appeal for tips to find out how the Patels, who were from India, travelled to southern Manitoba from the Toronto area.

The bodies of Jagdishkumar Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, their daughter Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old son Dharmik were found in a snow-packed field just steps from the border Jan. 19, 2022.

Investigators believe the Patels and seven other Indian nationals, who made it across the border, were victims of a larger human smuggling network. Suspects have been arrested in the U.S. and India.

“A year ago (Thursday), a senseless and preventable tragedy occurred,” RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said in a news release. “This tragedy was facilitated by individuals who had no regard for the safety and well-being of a young family.”

An appeal in October led to new information about the Patels’ time in Canada, but it’s still not known how they arrived at a drop-off spot east of Emerson on the evening of Jan. 18, 2022, RCMP said.

Their last known location was in Southern Ontario two days earlier.

Surveillance footage shows the family at Toronto Pearson International Airport after getting off a flight from Dubai on the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2022.

After being picked up by a private vehicle, the Patels stayed at a hotel in the Mississauga area for two days. They travelled in the Toronto area using private vehicles and a ride-hailing service.

Between Jan. 14 and 16, they moved between the Mississauga area and Welland, Ont., a city just west of the Canada-U.S. border — a new detail revealed by the RCMP.

Police believe the family left the Mississauga area shortly before arriving in Manitoba.

It’s not known if the Patels were in Manitoba before Jan. 18.

Police believe the Patels and seven other Indian nationals were dropped off about one kilometre north of the border that night to attempt the illegal crossing as part of an “organized and thought-out operation.”

The Patels became separated from the larger group as they walked through a -35 C blizzard in darkness.

Their bodies were discovered by RCMP after U.S. border patrol agents found the seven others and an alleged human smuggler just over the border northeast of St. Vincent, Minn.

The bodies of Jagdishkumar and the two children were found together. Vaishaliben’s body was discovered a short distance from her family.

Over the weekend, police in India’s western state of Gujarat, where the 11 migrants were from, arrested two men who allegedly helped the Patels travel to Canada.

Steve Shand, 48, of Deltona, Fla., is scheduled to stand trial on human smuggling charges in Minnesota in April.

U.S. authorities allege Shand was driving a van with two of the seven survivors as his passengers when he was stopped and arrested just south of the border.

The five other Indian nationals were found walking along a snow-covered road nearby.

Anyone with information about the Patel family’s movements is asked to call RCMP at 431-489-8551 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477.

“RCMP officers have been diligently working on this investigation and continue to urge anyone with information, as small or insignificant as it may be, to please come forward,” said Courchaine.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @chriskitching