Canada - Tina Fontaine, 15, found dead in Red River, Winnipeg, 8 Aug 2014

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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/08/18/tina-fontaine-missing-dead_n_5689272.html

"WINNIPEG - Officers are investigating the slaying of a 15-year-old aboriginal girl from rural Manitoba whose body was found wrapped in a bag and dumped in the Red River after she ran away from her foster home.

Police on Monday identified the girl as Tina Fontaine, who was in the care of Child and Family Services and was reported missing Aug 9.

Winnipeg police Sgt. John O'Donovan said Tina had only been in Winnipeg for a month, but was rebelling and had run away. Described as five-foot-three-inches tall and weighing only about 100 pounds, she was last seen in the city's downtown Aug. 8. She was wearing a white skirt, blue jacket and pink-and-white runners.

Her body was pulled from the river Sunday.

"At 15, I'm sure she didn't realize the danger that she was putting herself in," O'Donovan told a news conference.

"She's a child. This is a child that's been murdered. Society would be horrified if we found a litter of kittens or pups in the river in this condition. This is a child.

"Society should be horrified."
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...d-river-police-seek-tips-on-slaying-1.2739141

"Police are treating Fontaine’s death as a homicide.

“It’s obvious this child didn’t put herself in the river in that condition,” said homicide investigator Sgt. John O’Donovan. “She’s definitely been exploited and taken advantage of.”

Fontaine was last seen in downtown Winnipeg on Aug. 8 wearing a white skirt, blue jacket and pink-and-white runners. She stood five-feet-three-inches tall and weighed about 100 pounds.

O'Donovan said the teen was known to spend time near Portage Place.

“She frequented mainly the central area. [She] frequented places like Portage Place and the streets adjacent to that, parallel to that, around Portage Avenue,” he said. “She frequented the central area in general.”

Fontaine, of Sagkeeng First Nation, had only been in Winnipeg for a month before her disappearance.
Tina Fontaine

Tina Fontaine, 15, had cut her hair short before her death. Winnipeg police provided this photo of her. She was last seen alive on Aug. 9. (Winnipeg Police Service)

“She's a petite little thing — just turned 15, barely in the city for a little over a month,” O’Donovan said. “And she’s definitely been exploited and taken advantage of and murdered.”
 
She had only just turned 15, her life was ended before it had really started. How tragic, no-one is safe anywhere any more.. :cat:
 
Makes you wonder if Falon Hall's demise is somehow connected to hers -- perhaps he saw something he shouldn't have and was eliminated? (MOO)
 
Poor little dear slip of a girl, what sort of life did she have, to be in foster care, to have run away from that home..
She was barely 15, only a month in Winnipeg and tossed like garbage into the river.
My goodness, the heavens could weep. imo.
 
This has the hallmarks of a human trafficking case.
 
This has the hallmarks of a human trafficking case.

Wonder if this recent Winnipeg case had anything to do with it?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/man-faces-human-trafficking-charges-268396292.html

"WINNIPEG police have laid rare human-trafficking charges after a young woman was allegedly forced to work in the sex trade across Western Canada.

Jared Matthew Schaffer, 29, was arrested this week following an investigation that began last fall by the Winnipeg Police Service Counter-Exploitation unit.

It is one of the first cases of its kind in the city.

The victim, whose age has not been released, claims she met the accused in the summer of 2012 and quickly began working as an escort. Police say for the next 18 months, the man controlled the woman through "intimidation, threats and violence" which they say included preying on "her difficult financial situation."

She worked in Winnipeg but was also sent to numerous cities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta".
 
I would guess that there could be a similar situation/dynamic at play here, though I don't think that the same suspects are involved.
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...vigil-at-winnipeg-s-alexander-docks-1.2740432


"More than 1,000 people gathered at the Alexander Docks Tuesday night in Winnipeg to remember Tina Fontaine and Faron Hall, whose bodies were pulled from the Red River over the weekend.



Fontaine, 15, was reported missing on Aug. 9. Her body was recovered Sunday afternoon from the Red River near the Alexander Docks off Waterfront Drive.
Tina Fontaine

Tina Fontaine is shown in this Facebook profile picture from January of this year. Her body was discovered in a bag in the Red River over the weekend. Winnipeg police believe she was killed.

Police said her body was wrapped in a bag and are treating the death as a homicide.

Hall's body was recovered from the Red River on Sunday evening near Kildonan Park, and police are not treating his death as suspicious.

On Tuesday, more than 1,000 mourners came to a candlelight vigil at the spot where Fontaine's body was recovered from the river.

The sound of drumming and people weeping filled the air near the dock. Leaders from Manitoba's aboriginal community attended, drum circles were held and visitors renewed calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered women in Canada."
 
I wish that more that 1000 people were there, but that was not the case. These cases had little in common, but what the did have is significant. I can only say that many people are sad and angry. Falon sort of had a chance, albeit a very slim one, but Tina didn't.

For those just checking in, Falon had received some awards, if I recall correctly, for heroism and public service.

I know very little about Tina's story; so far as I can tell, she has likely been vulnerable for much of her life. Forgive me if I don't want to sign off on this, but I could imagine that she was exploited at some point, and I would not want to suggest her foster parents were a part of this, as I do not think they were in any way responsible. (Same with Falon -- his foster parents were, from all accounts, excellent.)
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...vigil-at-winnipeg-s-alexander-docks-1.2740432


"Fontaine, who was from the Sagkeeng First Nation, was in the care of a Child and Family Services agency when she went missing, according to police. She had run away from her foster home before, including once in July of this year.


Lana Fontaine, Tina's aunt, said her niece would go to her home whenever she ran away. But on Sunday, police officers appeared on her doorstep.

"They told me that they found her and it wasn't good," she said, sobbing. "I just knew in my heart she was gone.



​Lana Fontaine, who had last seen her niece a week before she disappeared, said Tina wanted to find a job and finish school.

"She had such good plans," she said."


Video with some details about Tina..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-LBucY5FyM

"Tina Fontaine death renews calls for inquiry into missing women"
 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ruggled-with-father-s-beating-death-1.2741842

Fontaine grew up in the Sagkeeng First Nation, located northeast of Winnipeg. Favel said she looked after Tina and her sister for the past 11 years, while their father battled cancer. Eugene Fontaine, 41, was found beaten to death on Oct. 31, 2011. Two men later pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Favel said she went to various Child and Family Services agencies to get counselling for Tina, who she said had trouble dealing with her father's killing. "I [sought] help from all agencies, and I was just turned away," she said.

Tina recently met her biological mother, who Favel claims introduced the teenager to drugs.
 
Just for the record, Hall's first name is Faron, not Falon. Although the "Homeless Hero", he also has had numerous run-ins with the law. One such incident:

from:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2011/09/07/homeless-hero-jailed-for-assault

Court heard Hall was intoxicated and panhandling "in an aggressive manner" last May when he approached a woman loading her two young children and groceries into her car.

The woman, a city doctor, told Hall she didn't have any change but offered to give him a few apples, special prosecutor Susan Helenchilde told court. When the woman turned to retrieve the apples, Hall slammed the car door on the woman, pinning her between the door and car. The woman screamed for help and several people quickly came to her aid, Helenchilde said.

"Mr. Hall attacked a woman who was trying to do him a kindness," Helenchilde said. "He attacked her because she wasn't helping him presumably in the way he wanted to be helped."
 
How I wish life could have been so much kinder to Tina. She didn't deserve any of this.

If there is an afterlife, I hope her Daddy met her at the gate.

Rest in peace, sweet young Tina
:rose: :rose: :rose:
 
I live approx. 60 miles northeast of Winnipeg and have connections to both Tina Fontaine and Faron Hall.

I worked as an Educational Assistant in the Ecole Powerview School, the High School that Tina attended near her home community - Sagkeeng First Nation. I had some contact with her for a few months when she was in 7th grade and saw her in passing in the hallways after that. She was a sweet girl just trying to get through adolescence. Like many of the First Nations/Aboriginal Students in the school, she and her family faced a number of challenges and family traumas due to the intergenerational legacies brought upon by Canada's Residential School system.

I met Faron Hall briefly a couple of times when he stayed at the Winnipeg home of my friend Marion Willis and her husband Robert Wavey. Faron was generally a gentle man who had been offered lots of support and help but who kept returning to alcohol and to the homeless community he felt most comfortable with.

I don't believe the two deaths are related at all. According to Marion Willis, Faron liked to take a dip in the red river on hot days and she suspects he got caught up in a strong current. However, a number of people in the Aboriginal community here believe that it was because people saw a man struggling in the water (ultimately identified as Faron) and called the police that the river was searched - resulting in finding Tina Fontaine's body wrapped in the bag and floating in the Red River.
 
Straight to the heart of the matter article, by Heather Mallick in today's paper.
Here is the last bit..
bbm.



http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/..._just_another_missing_native_kid_mallick.html


"In the meantime, think of Tina Fontaine of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. When she went missing last year, a heartfelt flyer with her picture described her, with an addendum: “Scars on both arms.”

People cut themselves when they’re hurting. Tina was hurting badly. The flyer also warned passersby, “Tina went missing before. Do NOT approach her harshly please.” She was approached harshly, one final time."
 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...men-an-inquiry-might-tell-us/article20180291/

``A comprehensive investigation might reveal unseen patterns, offer evidence why the murder rate is rising among aboriginal women and falling elsewhere, and provide factual evidence that what we have here is indeed a “sociological phenomenon.” To suggest that we can have study or action, information or solutions, seems like a faulty equation. Surely one leads to the other?

An inquiry would be a way of honouring the women whose futures are lost. Ms. Saunders, 26, was a university student, working on a thesis about missing and murdered indigenous women. She was trying to gain knowledge, to piece together the fractured bits of our history and make sense of the picture it provided. Ms. Paul, 25, wanted to be a hairdresser, according to her aunt. I don’t know what Tina Fontaine wanted to be; who has any clue, at 15? There’s so much we don’t know about any of them. And at this rate we aren’t likely to find out``
 

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