Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 19, 2007

FORT GOOD HOPE - A former resident of the NWT was likely murdered in Australia, following an altercation with her boyfriend.

Alana Boniface Dakin, 33,originally from Fort Good Hope, received fatal knife wounds to her upper chest and neck in the early morning hours of Nov. 13 in Girrawheen, a suburb of Perth, according to Sgt. Brian Cowie of the Western Australia Police.

Neighbours reported the incident to police, who subsequently arrested and charged her 31-year-old boyfriend Anthony Thomas Evans in connection with her death.

Evans has been charged with grievous bodily harm and the charges may be upgraded pending the outcome of a post-mortem to .3confirm the cause of her death, Cowie said.

"It was just a big shock here. We don't hear of these things happening around here," said her aunt Regina Lennie in Fort Good Hope.

Lennie said Dakin was planning on marrying her boyfriend, and was getting ready to start school in January.

Dakin moved with her parents to Australia in 1989 for her father's job. She returned to Fort Good Hope a number of times and Lennie said she just saw Dakin last month.

"She always came home," said Lennie.

Dakin was her mother's only child, but she has two half-sisters still living in Canada, in Vancouver and Edmonton, according to Lennie.

On top of Dakin's aunt in Fort Good Hope, she also has two uncles and her grandparents still in the community.

Evans was scheduled to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court Nov. 12.