The knock at Norine Vittrekwa's door in Whitehorse came around 5 a.m. Tuesday, a day after her daughter had been reported missing. It was a pair of RCMP officers wanting to know what the 17-year-old had been wearing the last time she saw her, on Sunday.
A parka and snowpants, the woman told the officers, who said they were working to identify a body. Hours later, Norine Vittrekwa got official word: Her daughter, Brandy Vittrekwa, was found dead Monday evening on a walking trail in Whitehorse's Kwanlin Dun First Nation community. The girl, described by friends and family as a magnetic young woman, was just two months shy of her 18th birthday and two credits short of a high-school diploma.
Instead of reaching those milestones, she joined the more than 1,180 native women who have been killed or gone missing in Canada between 1980 and 2012. She leaves behind an 11-year-old brother who, when told of the death, said, "But mom, I just wanted to see her one last time."
Dozens of RCMP members fanned out across the Yukon community earlier this week, seeking information about a death they are treating as a homicide. It is the second suspected homicide in the subdivision in just six months, in a territory that saw zero homicides in each of the three years prior. By early Thursday morning, police arrested a suspect in connection with the death.
"No charges have been laid at this time, and the suspect's connection to the incident continues to be examined and clarified by investigators," the RCMP said in a statement. Police did not release any further information about the suspect, and the girl's mother said the RCMP told her only that the person is young and male.
Norine Vittrekwa, who said she has barely slept since her daughter was reported missing Monday evening, is processing the loss of her child and the arrest. "I don't know what happened to her," she told The Globe and Mail. "That's what I need to know. And I need to see her. To say goodbye."
News of Brandy Vittrekwa's death is rippling throughout Canada's aboriginal community, which was already reeling from two high-profile crimes, both in Winnipeg: the killing of Tina Fontaine and the gruesome sexual assault of Rinelle Harper, who survived her Nov. 8 attack and this week added her voice to the growing chorus calling for a national inquiry into this country's murdered and missing native women.
"My fear is that here we are, demanding, demanding, demanding action, but meanwhile women are going missing and getting killed," said Michèle Audette, the outgoing president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. Kwanlin Dun's chief, Doris Bill, put it this way: "I really think it's time that men stand up and say, 'Enough is enough. … If it turns out to be an aboriginal perpetrator, this is not part of our culture. This is not part of who we are."
Ms. Bill said the girl's death happened to coincide with a ramped-up RCMP presence in the community amid security concerns. An RCMP spokesman, Constable Dean Hoogland, confirmed that the force earlier this week dedicated two constables and a supervisor to work out of a satellite office there. He said the police presence had been similar to that at times in the past, but this recent commitment will make staffing levels more consistent.
The suspected homicide has both rocked and galvanized the community, which came together for a meeting Wednesday evening that included the Premier and city councillors. There have been discussions on closing the dark, wooded path where the girl's body was found. And the Kwanlin Dun First Nation Health Centre is opening its healing-room doors for extended hours, in case residents need support.
Ms. Bill also went door to door throughout the community, notifying residents of the death and listening to people's concerns. One girl, a friend of the victim's, collapsed into her arms, sobbing. "This kind of thing shouldn't be happening to these young people," the chief said. "They have their whole lives ahead of them."
Brandy Vittrekwa moved from Fort McPherson, NWT, to Whitehorse in September, 2012, because her mother enrolled in college there. She made friends quickly, her mother said, but she also started going missing, here and there, for a day or two. "She would always answer calls the next day," Norine Vittrekwa said. "This time, she didn't."
The teen's Facebook page is filled with posts from Porter Creek Secondary School friends honouring her life and lamenting her death. "I can't imagine what a beautiful angel you are now," one wrote. "Miss you, girly."
Norine Vittrekwa said the family is planning to hold a memorial in Whitehorse, but will bury the girl in Fort McPherson next week. The RCMP, meantime, is appealing to the public for information about any suspicious activity in the area where the teen's body was found.