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Raymond Cormier, man acquitted in 2014 death of Winnipeg teen Tina Fontaine, died in Ottawa: police

Raymond Cormier, the man acquitted for the 2014 murder of Winnipeg teen Tina Fontaine, died in Ottawa on April 3, police in that city confirmed on Friday.

Police say they've determined Cormier's April 3 death is not suspicious

A man with grey hair, wearing a white shirt, is sitting with his arms crossed.
Raymond Cormier, seen here in a 2019 photo, was found not guilty of killing Tina Fontaine in February 2018. Ottawa police say he was found dead in that city on April 3. (Jonathan Castell/CBC)

The man acquitted for the 2014 murder of Winnipeg teen Tina Fontaine died in Ottawa, police in that city confirmed on Friday.

Ottawa police said FridayRaymond Cormierdied on April 3in the nation's capital, not in Kenora, Ont., as previously reported by media.

They said they've determinedCormier's death is not suspicious.

Thelma Favel, Tina Fontaine's great-aunt,told CBC News earlier this week homicide detectives informed her about Cormier's death.

In 2018, a jury acquitted Cormier, who had been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old girl originally fromSagkeeng First Nation.

The teenhad gone missing in July 2014. Her body was found wrapped in plastic and a duvet cover in Winnipeg's Red River that August.

Tina's death fuelled calls for the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Crown prosecutors decided not to appeal the jury's decision to acquit Cormier, and no one else has been charged in Tina's death.

Favel said she's still convinced Cormierwas guilty and that two years ago, she received a letter from a relative of Cormier who claimed he had confessed to killing the teen.