Family, friends and supporters of a B.C. teen found dead in a Vancouver apartment gathered outside the building Tuesday evening for a vigil in her honour.
Noelle ‘Ellie’ O’Soup and another deceased person were found in the apartment at East Hastings Street and Heatley Avenue on May 1.
“It’s just heartbreaking for us to have to be here to try to make sense of what happened,” her great aunt Donna Louie told Global News.
The 14-year-old, who was originally from the Key First Nation in Saskatchewan, had been missing for more than a year after leaving her Port Coquitlam home without permission on May 12, 2021.
Vancouver police say the investigation into O’Soup’s death is active and ongoing, and as such they are limited in what they can share.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s vigil, O’Soup’s family had strong words for both the police and the Ministry of Children and Family Development.
“My heart is absolutely broken knowing that we lost a child of our family that we love,” aunt Rebecca Brass said.
“MCFD has failed our family, they failed Noelle, she deserved better. She was in the care of them when this happened. The VPD has also failed our family … We hope for justice for her, we will get justice for her.”
Some Indigenous leaders have also called out what they believe was a lack of urgency in police efforts to find her while she was still missing.
“In general the RCMP — I am very disappointed and disgusted with them and their lack of action, their lack of interest and you know just in general not caring,” Chief Clinton Key with the Key First Nation told Global News in a previous interview.
The criticism comes in the wake of pressure on Vancouver police for their efforts to locate Chelsea Poorman, a 24-year-old Indigenous woman whose remains were found at a vacant home a year and a half after she was reported missing.