Family and friends gathered in Fort Macleod on Sunday evening where Lane Tailfeathers was last seen alive to remember the father of three with a candlelight vigil.
“My parents are broken — our whole family is,” Tailfeathers’ sister Billi-J Heavy Shields said.
“This is not the outcome we wanted, but we’re thankful we can have a little closure.”
Tailfeathers’ body was found by RCMP in the Crowsnest Pass on July 20, after his family spent the previous month searching for him.
“We’ve been having a really hard time not knowing where Lane was, and we’re just really thankful to be able to have him home now,” said Ashton Provost, the mother of Tailfeathers’ children.
The 35-year-old had been missing since June 20.
RCMP discovered his body after receiving a report from Fish and Wildlife about possible human remains near Burmis, Alta.
Tailfeathers’ family remembers him as a kind person who fell in with the wrong crowd.
“Lane was always joking. He was always greeting you with a smile, no matter the situation… and put his arm around you,” Heavy Shields said.
“He got into the wrong stuff at the wrong time,” his cousin Lonny Tailfeathers said.
“Other than that, great guy. Always happy, kind, really kind to my children… I’m going to miss him.”
His family still has questions about his death.
“We just want answers,” Heavy Shields said. “We want justice for our brother.
“Nobody deserves this, and nobody is going to get away with doing this to somebody.”
An RCMP spokesperson told Global News that police are treating Tailfeathers’ death as suspicious and the Alberta RCMP major crimes unit is handling the investigation.