Canadian Teen Girl May Have Been Saved if Police Had Conducted Longer Search, Coroner States
A coroner in Quebec has found that the death of a 16-year-old Cree girl could have been prevented if police had spent more than 10 minutes looking for her after she fell into a ditch. The incident occurred in the Cree community of Waswanipi, located about 490 kilometers northwest of Quebec City. According to the coroner’s report, Neebin Icebound died from hypothermia on October 9, 2022.
In the early morning of that day, police received a call reporting a partially naked woman lying on the ground near an elementary school. Three officers, two from the Quebec provincial police and one from the Cree police service, responded to the call. However, they only spent around 10 minutes searching for the teenager using the lights on their cars and a flashlight due to the dark, foggy morning.
The coroner, Karine Spénard, expressed astonishment that the search didn’t continue for a longer period or in a broader manner. She noted that the police had driven by the street where Icebound would be found just two hours later. Considering the cold and rainy weather with freezing temperatures, the coroner believes it would have been prudent for the police to search a larger area.
The report highlights that Icebound was eventually found by passersby who reported her having trouble breathing. They discovered her about 200 meters away from where the police had been searching. By the time she arrived at the Waswanipi clinic approximately 30 minutes later, she had no pulse. Despite more than an hour of efforts to revive her, medical staff declared her dead.
The coroner concluded that Icebound’s death was accidental, with no signs of foul play. It appears she removed her own clothes after they became soaked with water. According to Spénard, Icebound had been drinking with friends near the school and was heavily intoxicated when they decided to visit another part of town. While struggling to walk, she fell into a water-drenched ditch, and her friend, who had been helping her, left her there.
Security camera images obtained by police investigators show Icebound crawling on the ground near an elementary school, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt, shortly after 4 a.m. Meanwhile, the friend who had been with her was driven home by a police officer at around 2:30 a.m. The friend testified that she informed the officers twice about Icebound falling into a ditch and suggested they search for her.
While the province’s prosecution service decided not to press criminal charges against the officers involved, the coroner criticized their behavior and the way they conducted the search for a naked woman outdoors on a cold night. Despite not explicitly assigning blame, Spénard recommended that the province’s police ethics commissioner investigate the officers’ actions and that both the provincial police and the Cree Eeyou Eenou Police Service review their search procedures.
The Cree Eeyou Eenou Police Service expressed their commitment to taking coroner recommendations seriously and continually striving for improvement. The Quebec provincial police declined to comment on the matter.
