Hypothermia or homicide? 2 Manitoba families question MMIW cases
CBC News investigated deaths deemed to be not suspicious after families raise doubts
Olivia Gabrielbelieves in her heartthat her sister Rocelyndidn't just freeze to death.
Nicole Daniels' family feels the same way.Both believe suspicious circumstances led to thewomen dying of hypothermia, and they believe police could have done more to investigate.
Both women were found unresponsive in the snow.
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Rocelyn Gabriel, 20, was found between bins at a recycling centre in Portage la Prairie, Man.,in 2014.
Theyweren't far from home. Thedeathshave been ruled not suspicious in nature, but for their families, that'snot good enough.
The cases are part of a larger, national project that looks into 34 deaths of Indigenous women across the country in which the families have doubts about police findings.
CBC found four cases in Manitoba. Here are the details of two of those cases:
Nicole Daniels
Stephanie Daniels, 20,remembers the last time she saw her older sister Nicole.
At the time, Stephanie was going to bed and Nicole was going out,it was about 10 p.m.
"I remember walking up the stairs to go to my room, and I [saw] her getting ready in the bathroom . She had really nice makeup on, like smoky, smoky eyes," she said of Nicole.
"The next day, me and my sister [Alicia] were outside then our mom called us in and she told us Nicole didn't come home that night."
Daniels'body was found behind a strip mall on Regent Avenue less than 12 hours later,on April 1, 2009.
Stephanie added, "She told us there was a match. They found a girl a couple blocks away [she] fit her description, her jacket, her boots."
"She told us she had a date," said her stepfather,JohnFosseneuve. "When she jumped into the truck I could see the driver's head.He looked bald;like, no hair."
The familywants to know if the man she was last seen withhad any involvement in her death. They believe something happened between them that night. The autopsy report saida condom was found in her jacket pocket.
"Once he was done wih her, he just disposed of her," said Joan Winning, who is Nicole's aunt. "He would probably treat his dog or his cat better. He probably wouldn't throw it out of his vehicle, but her why?"
Winning wants the Winnipeg Police Serviceto reopen Nicole's case. She said her familyfought to get Nicole'scase added to aManitobatask force on missing and murdered Indigenous women thatwas created in August 2009.
Winning said her niece's case was never added, because police had determined no foul play was involved.The summary of theautopsy report read,"Her jacket had been removed and her blouse undone suggesting paradoxical undressing due to hypothermia."
The family does not think police investigated the case well enough and wants to know why no charges were laid. The autopsy found a large amount of alcohol in Nicole's system.
"Where is a 16-year-old going to get alcohol?" Winning asked."She didn't have a job, she didn`t have that kind of money to put that much alcohol in her system herself. Someone supplied her with all that alcohol."
Fosseneuve was the last personto see Nicole aliveand said she was sober when she left home.
The autopsy reportdocuments11 cuts and bruises on various parts of her body, including herface, arms, wrists, legs and inner knee area.The colour of the bruises ranged from red to purple to yellow or brown.
"That's just the big question: what happened that night?" asked Stephanie. "So many things could have happened all those questionsare left unanswered."
Winnipeg police confirm thatofficers interviewed the man Nicolewas last with the night before her bodywas found.There was no evidence of a sexual assault or that the man had supplied her with any alcohol, according to police, who saidthe investigation and autopsy determined her death was not a homicide.
Rocelyn Gabriel
Joyce Gabriel doesn't know if she will ever get over losing one of her seven children.
Her daughter Rocelyn was 20 years old when she died of hypothermia.
Portage La Prairie RCMP eventually ruled out foul play in her death, but said the case is still active.
"It should have been one of us instead of her. I would have replaced her," said Joyce.
Rocelyn was found nearlyfrozen to death outside of a recycling centre in Portage la Prairie. She was wearing two sweatersbut didn't have her coat. Her purse was found some distance from where she was. Her sister, Olivia, said that was not like her.
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"I believe in my heart it's foul play.No one's going to tell me different," said Olivia, 24.
She said her sister took good care of herself and her belongings,and she always took a cab or called for a ride.
Rocelyn was out with her cousin and sister that night, but they ended up getting separated. She was last seen around 4a.m. CT on Jan.26, 2014.
There was a blizzard that night,with winds gusting up to 80 km/h,and the wind chill made it feel like 40 C, according to Environment Canada.
The family doesn't know how Rocelynended up at the recycling centre, but they areconvinced she wouldn't walk there, especially considering the weather.
"She was trying to flag somebody," said Joyce, citingsurveillance video footage of her daughter at the recycling centre.
"She kept going to the highway and then she kept going back to where the corner is. She kept doing that every time she seen a vehicle."
"They didn't investigate it properly," she said."That's something that they need to check. That should have been the first thing that they checked, was the videos."
Olivia added, "Like any other case, it just seems like it's just anotherAboriginaljust another one that went missing or murdered.Didn't get enough attention, didn't get the justice."
"We are still hopeful that years after the fact, someone with a crucial piece of information will contact our investigators," said Sgt BertPaquetin anemail.
"Recent cases like MichaelKalanzaand Teresa Robinson certainly showed that we never give up and go to any length to solve crimes and bring closures to the families affected."
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