The body of 13-year-old Jennifer Naglingniq was found in her Iqaluit home shortly after midnight Dec. 6.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Mike Jeffrey said police are combing through House 2230-B, looking for evidence. Fifteen officers were involved in the initial stages of the investigation. An autopsy is to be performed in Edmonton to determine the exact cause of death.

"The crime scene is not finished being processed," Jeffrey said Friday. "It takes 24 to 48 hours to properly process a scene.

"We have to look at all potential evidence ... turn over everything and go over it slowly so we don't disrupt anything that might be there."

Naglingniq lived in the house with her mother and German shepherd dog. It's not known who discovered the body, or if anyone else was in the residence at the time. Students devastated

Naglingniq attended Grade 8 at Inuksuk high school. Her peers were grief-stricken Friday afternoon.

"It's weird not having her here. I can't believe she's gone," said 13-year-old Amanda Eegeesiak, a longtime classmate of Naglingniq. "It doesn't seem like it's real. There are people all around the school whose faces are red from crying."

"There were 30 or 40 people, all her friends, and everyone was crying lots," added Allison Ford, 14. "Jennifer's smile - she always had that smile."

Natasha Mablick refused to believe the tragic news when she first heard it at school Friday morning. "I didn't think she would die. It was so unexpected."

Charles Banfield, executive director of Qikiqtani Regional School Operations for the Department of Education, said counsellors were available to help students deal with the loss.

The school was also open Friday from 7-9 p.m. and again from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday to give students a place to go if they needed to talk about Naglingniq's death.

Counselling services to help adult residents of Iqaluit are available at Baffin Regional Hospital or at the Mamisainaq Wellness Centre.

Aqsarniit school teacher Carol Horn taught Naglingniq last year and remembers her as a teenager with flair and artistic style.

"Her favourite thing was to read Chicken Soup for the Teenaged Soul out loud to her classmates," said Horn. "She did a lot of talking about how important it was to get help."

Horn also said Naglingniq dreamed of turning her skill as a throat singer into a career as a performer or a rock star. She also thought about becoming a flight attendant.

"She was a very vibrant little girl who had plans for her life," said Horn.

At the annual Dec. 6 vigil at Inuksuk high school Friday afternoon, 14 roses were laid to commemorate the 1989 murder of 14 women at L'ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. More than 200 sobbing students and community members watched as nine-year-old Leevee Naglingniq laid a 15th rose that afternoon in memory of her cousin.