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UPDATE: Ontario Provincial Police reopening 1977 investigation into Moosonee teenager's death
''Chakasim, 17, was the youngest of eight siblings in a tight-knit family. After leaving for a night out, Josephine never returned home. Her body was found in water by railway tracks in Moosonee, Ont., on April 22, 1977, one day after she was last seen alive.
The Cree teenager’s death was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Branch of the OPP. Her case was concluded in February 1978 when a regional coroner determined she had died of exposure with “no evidence of abuse to the body,” according to an OPP email.''
“There was so much evidence along the tracks,” said Chakasim, who currently lives in Moosonee.
“Her shoes were found along the tracks, and her [cigarette] lighter and her glasses, right around the same area where she was in the water.”
''She said the items were found on the other side of the tracks from the spot where Josephine was discovered. To her, that indicates there was a struggle.''
''Chakasim does not believe her sister died from exposure. She said one investigator told her that Josephine was hit over the head with a weapon and there were marks on her body.
Originally her death was not classified as a homicide, but that has changed, according to Det. Insp. Gilles Depratto.
The police sent her case to be re-examined by a forensic pathology unit because the service is revisiting its files on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, according to Depratto.
“When we requested a review [of] the forensic pathology, they said homicide could not be ruled out,” said Deparrato.
“We’ve prepared the file, and now a major case manager is going to look at this file again.”
UPDATE: Ontario Provincial Police reopening 1977 investigation into Moosonee teenager's death
''Chakasim, 17, was the youngest of eight siblings in a tight-knit family. After leaving for a night out, Josephine never returned home. Her body was found in water by railway tracks in Moosonee, Ont., on April 22, 1977, one day after she was last seen alive.
The Cree teenager’s death was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Branch of the OPP. Her case was concluded in February 1978 when a regional coroner determined she had died of exposure with “no evidence of abuse to the body,” according to an OPP email.''
“There was so much evidence along the tracks,” said Chakasim, who currently lives in Moosonee.
“Her shoes were found along the tracks, and her [cigarette] lighter and her glasses, right around the same area where she was in the water.”
''She said the items were found on the other side of the tracks from the spot where Josephine was discovered. To her, that indicates there was a struggle.''
''Chakasim does not believe her sister died from exposure. She said one investigator told her that Josephine was hit over the head with a weapon and there were marks on her body.
Originally her death was not classified as a homicide, but that has changed, according to Det. Insp. Gilles Depratto.
The police sent her case to be re-examined by a forensic pathology unit because the service is revisiting its files on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, according to Depratto.
“When we requested a review [of] the forensic pathology, they said homicide could not be ruled out,” said Deparrato.
“We’ve prepared the file, and now a major case manager is going to look at this file again.”
