FORT SIMPSON - As he surveyed the damage done to his cousin's grave adornment, Yannick Lapierre knelt down and picked a picture frame out of the snow.

The photo in the frame shows the smiling face of Marc Andre Lapierre. Marc Andre was 18 when he died in Fort Simpson in 1996. Fire trucks were one thing that his cousin really liked, said Yannick.

Up until late October Marc Andre's grave in the Fort Simpson cemetery was topped with a red fire engine that was protected under a glass case. Both the fire engine and the case were damaged by unknown vandals sometime between the mornings of Oct. 20 and 22.

"I just wonder why would they do that. What's the point of doing something like that," Yannick asked as he viewed the damage for the first time on Thursday afternoon.

Marc Andre's father had the fire truck and case made in Montreal and shipped to the village. They were placed on the grave a year after the teenager's death. This is the first time anything has happened to the memorial, said Yannick. The family used to take the truck and case off of the grave in the winter and return it in the summer. The truck had been kept in storage for approximately the past three years but it was put back out in May. The plan was to leave it on year round, Yannick said.

The memorial was fine on Oct. 20 when Marc Andre's aunt Arlie Brown drove by the cemetery. A resident of the village noticed the damage on Thursday morning and informed Brown.

The truck, which is made of Styrofoam and artificial flowers, was found overturned and partially damaged beside the broken case. There's no way that either can be put back together, said Yannick.

"It makes me really upset and kind of breaks my heart too," he said.

Yannick said he'd like to know who is responsible for the damage so he can ask them what the point of doing it was.

The Fort Simpson RCMP is investigating the incident. An officer went to the cemetery and took pictures of the damage, said Const. Stephen Butt.

"It's very serious given the nature of it, that it's a grave," he said.

Butt added there are currently no suspects in the case and the RCMP will be reliant on information from community members.

Anyone with information about the graveyard vandalism is asked to contact the RCMP detachment or Crime Stoppers.