THUNDER BAY — Police Chief Darcy Fleury says the tragic death of a 14-year-old youth from Neskantaga First Nation will be investigated "to its fullest."
The body of Mackenzie (Nathan) Moonias was found Monday in the water at Marina Park.
The missing student from Matawa Education Centre was last seen alive on the morning of Dec.13 on University Drive, and was apparently reported missing on the evening of Friday the 15th.
The Thunder Bay Police Service released several missing person notices about her disappearance, with the first being issued about 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
After her body was discovered, Neskantaga Chief Chris Moonias said "It is unacceptable that we continue to bring our youth home in coffins. We fully expect that Mackenzie's death will not simply be ruled an accident before a thorough and competent investigation is conducted."
NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler also said the youth's disappearance had raised serious questions about the protocols and procedures around missing person investigations involving Indigenous youth.
"We are extremely concerned that gaps in the process for reporting missing persons, identified through the Seven Youth Inquest, are apparently still at play when Indigenous youth are reported missing," the two leaders said in a joint statement Monday.
Responding Tuesday to questions about the First Nations' leaders concerns, Fleury said "I think what happens is, you know, they have a position, they have an idea of how things should operate. And of course we are going through the process of the investigation. First of all, the search, and the discovery, the recovery. So we're going through that and then on to the investigation."
He added "I can assure everybody...I'll say it again and again and again. I have seen really good quality work by our teams. With this event here, we had from the moment that she was reported missing, from the moment we took the report, we started our search immediately and we worked that entire evening and night, that morning, early morning, and then into the investigative stages the following morning. So we did a really good job as far as doing that piece, and concentrating on the areas where we understood that potentially she might have been, as well as searching other areas."
The police chief said he believes it's crucial for community stakeholders to continue to communicate with each other.
"I have expressed to their leadership that we have to continue with that, and maybe some of the messaging that we can work together to get that messaging out there, so that we're sharing the same messaging, and there's not any confusion from it."
Fleury said the investigation into Mackenzie Moonias' death will be complete and that "at the end of the day, [we'll] see where the results take us."
