Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

TULITA
Searchers found a body in the Mackenzie River 24 km from Tulita on Friday afternoon, and some believe it is Nicole Horassi.

Nicole Horassi: Tulita girl went missing on June 24.

Horassi's father, Roger Odgaard, reported via the search's official Facebook page on Saturday that his daughter was found dead in the river.

As of early Sunday afternoon, the police were not confirming that the body is Horassi's, although the search has been called off. RCMP Sgt. Wes Heron would not discuss exactly when the body was found.

"That is an element of the investigation that we are not talking about at this time," Heron said Sunday. "There is no confirmation that it is her."

Heron said the RCMP is not confirming identification because the body was sent to Edmonton for a post-mortem under the direction of the NWT Coroner's Office.

"Until such time of a cause of death and the person has been identified, we don't comment until we have all of the facts," he said.

Horassi, 17, has been missing since June 24.

Norman Yakeleya, the Sahtu MLA who co-ordinated the search effort, has been in close contact with Horassi's family and the community overall.

"The body was sent out and the RCMP and family are just waiting to see when they will be coming back and when funeral arrangements will be made," Yakeleya said Sunday.

"Basically we are just waiting for the autopsy to be done and a report back from the RCMP."

Yakeleya estimated there were hundreds of people who came out to help with the search effort from across the North over 20 days.

There was assistance from Canadian Helicopters and Sahtu Helicopters, which provided aerial support for the search.

Yakeleya said the volunteer team was also in regular contact with the RCMP through daily briefings and worked very closely with Const. Jason Ellefsen and Cpl. Shane Hubley of the Tulita detachment.

The search was greatly helped, Yakeleya said, after funds were raised by the communities of Tulita and Norman Wells to bring in Canadian and American experts in locating drowning victims.

"The family could not express their thanks to all the volunteers and did not know so many people cared for them," said Yakeleya. "We never gave up."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.