by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 15/97) - A 16-year-old Lutselk'e boy was found dead in a wooded area in Fort Smith Monday.

Rufas Rabesca was located late Monday night behind a residence where he was staying while attending school, said RCMP Cpl. Brian Winter.

He said foul play is not suspected in the boy's death. His body was frozen, but an autopsy will be performed to determine just how he died, Winter added.

The boy wasn't staying at the Lutselk'e boarding home in Fort Smith, where students from the community are usually housed when they attend high school there.

Eugene Ewanyshyn, superintendent of education for the South Slave Divisional Education Council, said Rabesca was staying instead at a private home in Fort Smith.

"I believe it was last fall that he left the boarding home program -- sometime last October," said Ewanyshyn.

Counselling services are available for students troubled by the death at P.W. Kaeser high school, where Rabesca was a Grade 10 student.