HAY RIVER - A Hay River man has died after being stabbed earlier this month just outside of Edmonton.

Vern Donald Durocher, 40, was stabbed in the early morning hours of April 2 on the Enoch First Nation at the western edge of Edmonton.

Enoch RCMP responded at 4:09 a.m. to a call about a stabbing outside a home on the reserve.

Durocher was rushed to the University of Alberta Hospital with stab wounds.

Const. Barbara Roy of the Spruce Grove/Stony Plain RCMP detachment said Durocher died 12 hours later.

Roy said the stabbing occurred outside a house in a rural area of the reserve, about a half mile east of the Enoch town site.

She said, after the stabbing, Durocher got people to call for help.

The police are still investigating the matter and working towards identifying the person responsible, she said on April 8. "Nobody's been arrested."

The constable did not directly answer when asked if a suspect has been identified, but repeated that no one has yet been arrested.

There were other people in the house at the time of the stabbing, the constable said. "I don't know how much they witnessed."

Roy said it has yet to be determined if Durocher was staying at the house or just visiting.

A friend in Hay River said Durocher, who was originally from Saskatchewan, first came to the community years ago to work as a fisherman and she has known him since 1997.

"It's actually surprising and shocking," the friend said about the news of Durocher's violent death.

The friend, who did not wish to be identified, said Durocher resided on and off in Hay River, and she believes he had children in British Columbia.

"He seemed like a nice guy," the woman said, adding she knew him socially. "We just seen him like two weeks ago."

At the time of his death, Durocher was working with a Hay River construction company.