One year after a second set of men made an emotional plea for answers after learning they were switched at birth, the RCMP has concluded nothing criminal occurred.
In an email statement Thursday the RCMP said it had completed its investigation into the four men switched at birth at the Norway House Indian Hospital in 1975.
“After reviewing medical records and conducting interviews with family members and hospital employees, there is no evidence a criminal offence was committed in relation to these incidents,” the RCMP statement read.
READ MORE: ‘We want answers so bad’: 2 Manitoba men switched at birth make emotional plea
In Aug. 2016 the two men shared the story of how they had been sent home with the wrong parents.
Leon Swanson and David Tait Jr. were born just days apart in 1975 at what was then known as the Norway House Indian Hospital. At a news conference in 2016 they shared how DNA tests showed they had been switched at birth.
“Forty years gone by,” Tait said. “I don’t know, I feel distraught, confused and angry.”
In 2015 two different men shared a similar story.
READ MORE: Another switched-at-birth case from same northern Manitoba hospital
Luke Monias and Norman Barkman were also born in the same hospital in the remote community of Norway House. As they grew up in their community of Garden Hill they eventually began to notice they resembled each other’s family more than their own. DNA tests later proved them right.
Their stories prompted outrage and a demand for answers.
“I can’t describe this matter as anything less than criminal,” former Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson said at the time.
Following the revelation of the switches, Health Canada had offered free DNA tests to anyone born at the Norway House hospital before 1980, when the facility started fitting newborns with identification bands.