Crisis supports headed to Thompson as loved ones grieve loss of 15-year-old girl found dead in park
'We grieve with the family.... There is a void there that will never be filled,' says MKO grand chief
Crisis workers and other supports are being sent to Thompson to help family and loved ones there cope with the loss of a teen girl found dead outside in a local park this week.
Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents 26 northern First Nations, says it has dispatched a crisis team and a liaison from its missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls unit to the northern city.
"We grieve with the family at this time," MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee said in a statement on Wednesday. "Their child did not come home and now there is a void there that will never be filled."
The response comes less than two days after a 15-year-old girl was found dead in a dog park on Baffin Crescent in Thompson.
She was reported missing around 11:50 p.m. Monday, when she didn't come home after leaving the Thompson Recreational Community Centre grounds with friends, according to RCMP. The rest of her friends made it home.
RCMP said they conducted "extensive patrols and inquiries" through the night. On Tuesday morning, someone came across the girl's body in the park and reported it to RCMP.
She was last seen alive near where her body was found, according to RCMP. Temperatures in Thompson dipped as low as –24 C overnight Monday and into Tuesday.
No cause of death has been released yet. An autopsy is being conducted while RCMP investigate.
On Wednesday, RCMP media relations officer Tara Seel said the force would not reveal the identity of the teen nor provide any further details.
MKO said a vigil is being planned in Thompson.
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