An indigenous teenager from Port Coquitlam, who has been missing for more than a year, has been found dead.
The Coquitlam RCMP announced on Wednesday that the search for 14-year-old Noel O’Soup – who was from Ellie – “has come to a tragic end”.
O’Soup was reported missing on May 12, 2021, and Mountis said Wednesday she was found dead in Vancouver.
The RCMP did not say whether they considered her death suspicious, adding that the Vancouver Police Department was “currently investigating” the circumstances surrounding her.
In a statement on Wednesday, the VPD said the remains of O’Soup were found on May 1 this year in a residential building at 405 Heatley St.
“Earlier today, we met in private with Noel’s family and briefed them on this tragic news,” the department said. “We will continue to provide updates to her family as the investigation progresses.
Vancouver police said the BC Coroners Service was investigating the cause, and the VPD’s major crime department was “investigating” the circumstances surrounding O’Soup’s death.
Investigators have not ruled out crime in the case, police said, adding that the “active and ongoing” investigation limits how much detail they can share publicly.
“Noel’s death will raise many questions in the community and we are committed to finding answers,” the VPD said. “If during this investigation we find that there is a risk to public safety, we will immediately inform the public.
O’Soup left her home in Port Coquitlam around dinner the day she was last seen, according to the RCMP.
Police said earlier that she was “not allowed to leave”, but did not specify what that meant, declining to answer questions about her situation.
Mountis said he is known to spend time in the Lower Continent, including Vancouver.
Police made several complaints seeking information about the girl’s whereabouts, and released new photos in January, hoping for new leads.
Investigators then said they were publishing surveillance camera photos in hopes of moving the investigation forward. They did not say whether they believed the man in the photos was O’Soup or whether they believed the man was someone else connected to her.
In its latest update to the investigation before Wednesday, the Coquitlam RCMP said the photos had generated new tips, but that they had all been prosecuted and the girl had not yet been found.
The RCMP estimates that between 70,000 and 80,000 people are reported missing each year in Canada, and says most have been found within seven days.
The latest available data are from 2020. At that time, the BC had the highest number of reports of missing adults per capita – 239 per 100,000 people. The province did not have the highest percentage of missing children and youth, but received a total of 5,870 reports this year.
Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately represented in these reports.
According to the Assembly of First Nations, 11% of missing women are indigenous, although indigenous people make up only about 4.3% of Canada’s population. It is believed that the current data do not represent the scale of the problem, says AFN.
The RCMP said that indigenous women accounted for 10 percent of cases in which a woman disappeared for at least 30 days, statistics based on a 2015 report. Many of these women were identified as missing due to “unknown” circumstances or suspicions of unfair play ‘.
With files from Kendra Manjone from Vancouver from CTV News
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