HAY RIVER - A female was killed on Oct. 20 in an early-morning fall from the Mackenzie Place high-rise apartment building in Hay River.

RCMP investigators examine the scene where a female died on Oct. 20 after falling from Hay River's Mackenzie Place high-rise apartment building. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene when the RCMP and the Hay River ambulance service responded to the incident.

According to an RCMP news release, the death is being treated as suspicious.

"To us, it's obviously suspicious until we can prove it otherwise," said Sgt. Wayne Norris, the media relations officer with the RCMP's G Division. "Somebody falls from a building that size, you've got to find out what happened."

The investigation is ongoing by the Hay River RCMP Detachment with assistance from G Division's major crimes unit and forensic identification services.

The RCMP is asking the general public for assistance in their investigation.

Speaking on the afternoon of Oct. 20, Norris said there is not a lot of information available about the incident, including the exact time when it happened.

"The information is limited just because this is suspicious in nature and we don't know a lot right now," Norris said.

The sergeant said the release of information is also being limited to protect the integrity of the investigation.

Norris did not say which level of the 17-floor building the victim fell.

The female landed on the roof of a one-storey extension from the high-rise. That section of the building contains a storefront school operated by Diamond Jenness Secondary School.

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