‘My daughter was supposed to bury me’: father devastated after slaying

A father is seeking answers while Winnipeg police investigate the death of his 18-year-old daughter, who was in Child and Family Services care.

The 39-year-old dad said homicide detectives spoke to him after he learned Saturday morning that his eldest child died under circumstances that were still unclear to him.

“My daughter was supposed to bury me. It’s not supposed to be the other way around,” he told the Free Press in a tearful interview Tuesday, while he prepared to make funeral arrangements. “Her life was just beginning.”

Police have not yet publicly commented on the First Nations woman’s death. Information will be provided to the media, pending notification of next of kin, spokesman Const. Pat Saydak said.

The father was informed about his daughter’s death by people who knew her. He said an official from a CFS agency confirmed the death, after he phoned the group home where his daughter lived. Both cannot be identified under Canada’s CFS Act.

“I didn’t know what to say. My world was just dead. I was in shock,” he said.

Detectives went to his home after he called the Winnipeg Police Service’s headquarters to try to learn more about what happened to the woman.

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

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. She was always a happy person, and she was kind-hearted,” he said. “She wanted to fix her life up.”

The woman’s interests included drawing and poetry, and she loved playing with her siblings, her father said.

He said he unsuccessfully tried to get her back into his care when his life became stable following some earlier struggles.

“Just to have regular visitations was hard enough,” he said. “I’ve been fighting for (her) to come back home with me for 12 years.”

The woman spoke to her father about getting an apartment and looking for a job, after turning 18. He said she continued to live in a group home after her care with a CFS agency was extended to the age of 21.

“I don’t think she trusted the system anymore,” he said. “I think she just wanted to be on her own and make her own decisions.”

He said his daughter was vulnerable, and she had negative influences in her life.

“Ever since she got into a group home, things went sideways, meeting the wrong people. I don’t think the group home system works for our children.”

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine described the young woman’s death as heartbreaking.

“It’s another tragedy, particularly in respect of Indigenous women and girls, and it elicits a profound sadness not only for myself as minister, not only for myself as an Indigenous woman, but for our whole community,” she said.

“My most deepest condolences go out to her family, to her community, to her friends, to those folks that loved her.”

Fontaine said she was unable to answer whether the woman was still in the child welfare system.

“Because it’s under (police) investigation, I’m not able to answer that question or really much of anything right now,” she said.

“Once we have information and once we are able to, we will do a review of those services that she accessed and the supports that she had.”

The office of Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth, was notified of the death, as is the case following all child deaths in the province, a spokesperson confirmed.

If the young person or their family received any reviewable service, such as child welfare, within the year before their death, the advocate may review the public services delivered to them.

The Manitoba Families department’s latest annual report said 8,919 children were in care as of March 31, 2024, down from 8,990 the previous year. The report said 91 per cent of the children are Indigenous.

About four per cent of the children (346) were in residential care settings, including group homes.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca