One year after the tragic deaths of the Patel family, just metres from the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson, Man., investigators continue to put the pieces together.
While police in the family’s home country of India said this week they had arrested and charged two men with crimes including human trafficking, in Manitoba, RCMP are still looking for tips to create a timeline of the family’s whereabouts from their arrival in Manitoba to their deaths on Jan. 19, 2022.
Investigators say they believe the family was dropped off near the border and were on foot with a larger group of people trying to reach the border, when they became separated and eventually died of exposure in the bitter cold.
The bodies of Jagdishkumar Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, and their two children Vihangi, 11 and Dharmik, 3, were found by RCMP around 12 metres from the border.
“A year ago today, a senseless and preventable tragedy occurred,” RCMP Cpl. Julie Courchaine said in a statement Thursday.
“This tragedy was facilitated by individuals who had no regard for the safety and wellbeing of a young family.
“RCMP officers have been diligently working on this investigation and continue to urge anyone with information, as small or insignificant as it may be, to please come forward.”
Police on both sides of the border have come up with a timeline for the Patels’ arrival in Canada, via Toronto, but there’s a gap — from Jan. 16 to 18 of last year — that remains unclear.
The family is known to have arrived at Toronto’s Pearson international airport on the afternoon of Jan. 12, on a flight originating in Dubai.
Police say they were then picked up by a private vehicle and stayed for two days in a Mississauga, Ont.-area hotel. Between Jan. 14 and 16, they moved between Mississauga and Welland, Ont. — and that’s where the trail runs dry.
The family arrived in the Emerson area late on Jan. 18, but RCMP say it’s unknown whether they were in Manitoba before that date.
Anyone with information about the Patels’ travel from Ontario to Manitoba, or any other aspects of their fatal trip to Canada, is asked to call Manitoba RCMP’s major crime services at 431-489-8551 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, or to leave a secure tip online at http://www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.
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