Woman who died seeking help a hero: family

A 19-year-old woman who perished from exposure while trying to get help after being stranded in a remote part of northern Saskatchewan is being called a hero for her efforts to save three others.

The woman, identified by family members as Kerry Canepotatoe, was found dead on Highway 942 on Monday near Big River Saskatchewan.

"I consider her as a hero," Moise Rabbitskin, her great-uncle, told CBC News. "If it wasn't for her, we would be still searching [for the others]. But she sacrificed her life just to come out and save the rest."

Canepotatoe was with three otherpeople who were stranded after driving into a slough April 8.

On Thursday, a week later, RCMP searchers found Melissa Rabbitskin and her two young boys, Cashton and Jerome, still with the stuck vehicle.

RCMP have asked for an outside agency to examine the matter because the stranded group had placed a 911 call and asked for assistance.

Help, however, never arrived and there was no follow-up done to determine the fate of the group.

According to Rabbitskin, the two women and the boys were making their way from Big River to Loon Lake in a 1991 Buick sedan.

Big River is about 230 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Loon Lake is about 190 kilometers west of Big River.

The driver missed a key turn and instead of being on a main highway, the group was suddenly deep into a confusing maze of northern logging roads.

It was raining and the roads were slick with mud. While they were trying to work their way back to the main road, they drove into a slough.

After calling 911 and asking an RCMP dispatcher for help, the four spent the night in their car.

The next morning, Kerri decided to see if she could walk to the main road and flag a motoristfor assistance.

"[She] started walking, to try to get some help," Rabbitskin said. "That's how the tragedy came ... she walked for 70, 80 kilometres which took her a day, a night and the next day."

RCMP reported Friday that an autopsy determined Canepotatoe died of exposure.

Police also confirmed that a 911 call had been made, but that no tow truck reached the group and no officers were dispatched.

Rabbitskin said the three still in the stranded car had no food and were forced to survive on rainwater.

"What they had for water was rainwater," he said. "It was raining all this time."

To stay warm at night the three would huddle together in the back seat.

The fact the group was missing came to light Thursday and a search effort, co-ordinated by the RCMP was launched.

The threewere spotted early Thursday evening by an air search team. A ground team caught up with them around 9 p.m., local time.

Rabbitskin, who was in the party that found the trio, said it was a difficult scene to comprehend.

"Terrible. A terrible, terrible place," he said. "Water and slough [and] mud. When I went there to that car, a person wouldn't want to live in that car."

Rabbitskin said the family believes there was a breakdown in communication in the RCMP dispatching and communications system.

He said they are grateful that when it was clear the missing group was unaccounted for, an extensive search was mounted and that three people did make it out alive.

There was no immediate word on what outside agency would review the matter.