The family of one of the 14-year-old girls found dead outside after a frigid night on a northern Manitoba First Nation says she was struggling to cope with the loss of her mother, Ashlee Shingoose, who disappeared in Winnipeg nearly a year ago.
Island Lake RCMP were called around 8 a.m. on Wednesday after the teens were found outside a home in St. Theresa Point First Nation. One of the girls found dead was Dayna Shingoose.
“We didn’t know anything about it until that morning, when we heard that Dayna was frozen,” her grandfather Albert Shingoose told CBC.
Police previously said they believe the two girls were outside for a period of time on a night when the temperature dropped to –23 C. They were taken to the nursing station, where they were pronounced dead.
Albert said Dayna left their home around 8 p.m. the night before the two girls were found. The teen wanted to hang out with friends, he said.
“Her grandmother told her it was too cold for her to go out, and we were trying to hold her back, but she didn’t want to stay home.”
Albert had just recently returned to the community after spending a month searching for Dayna’s mother Ashlee in Winnipeg. He said his granddaughter, who lived with him and her grandmother Theresa, had been taking it hard and was depressed over her mom’s disappearance.
“She was waiting, waiting for her mom. And I kept on telling her, I’ll try and find her, I’ll find your mom…'” he said.
“She was a good girl. She always tried to help people out all the time. She was always there for her friends.”
FULL STORY: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/teen-girls-found-outside-st-theresa-point-1.6768670
