Charges not expected in deaths of Tammy Keeash, Josiah Begg

THUNDER BAY – It’s unlikely charges will be laid in the deaths of two Indigenous teenagers whose bodies were discovered local waterways earlier this year.

Tammy Keeash, 17, and Josiah Begg, 14, disappeared on May 6 and Thunder Bay Police quickly determined neither death was suspicious in nature. That led to an outcry from Indigenous leaders and the families of the two teens, who demanded a deeper investigation into the two deaths, the sixth and seventh Aboriginal youth to die in local rivers since 2000.

“The responsibility for any criminal charges would be to the police service, but I’m not aware of any charges that have occurred in the investigations,” said Ontario’s chief coroner Dirk Huyer, a day after suggesting the same to the Toronto Star while adding he was very knowledgeable about the two cases.

In the aftermath of the teens’ deaths, dozens of Indigenous leaders called for the RCMP to take over the investigation of the case.

It was Huyer who directed York Regional Police to step in to conduct a death investigation, with the help of the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service.

“Generally speaking we’re trying to understand the circumstances of the death and looking to see if there’s anything we can learn from the death investigation that may help to inform future prevention strategies,” Huyer said, reached by phone by CKPR Radio.

Keeash hailed from North Caribou Lake First Nation and was found on May 7, a day after going missing from her Thunder Bay foster home. According to APTN reports, she was drinking with friends near the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway on the night she died.

Begg, who resided in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, was visiting Thunder Bay with his father, who was in town for medical appointments, when he disappeared. His body was recovered nearly two weeks after he disappeared.

Thunder Bay Police, who along with the Thunder Bay Police Services Board is under investigation for alleged systemic racism concerns, declined to comment, as did York Regional Police. A Nishnawbe Aski Nation spokesperson also said NAN would not comment.