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Noelle (Elli) O’Soup was found dead in an apartment building on Heatley Avenue and Hastings Street in Downtown Eastside on May 1st.
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June 24, 2022 • 55 minutes ago • 2 minutes reading • 10 comments Noelle “Elli” O’Soup, 14, left her home in Port Coquitlam on May 12, 2021. Photo by Coquitlam RCMP
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Members of the Saskatchewan First Nation that was the home of a missing teenager found dead in downtown Vancouver Eastside say inadequate police investigation is evidence of systemic racism against Indigenous peoples.
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Noelle “Elli” O’Soup, 14, was identified as one of two people whose bodies were found May 1 in a room in an apartment block on Heatley Avenue on Hastings Street. , according to Vancouver police.
“Earlier this week, VPD received confirmation from BC’s forensic service that Noelle was one of two people discovered on May 1,” spokeswoman Const said. Tania Visintin in an email. “Until then, his identification had been unknown, as we were awaiting identification from the BC Coroners Service.”
The cause of death, or the other person’s name, was not disclosed.
“We met privately with Noelle’s family members yesterday (Thursday) and will continue to provide support and information to them as the investigation continues,” Visintin said.
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O’Soup had been missing since May 12, 2021, when she left her home in Port Coquitlam “without permission,” according to a Coquitlam RCMP statement at the time that included a photo and asked for help from the public to find it.
Police said he was known to frequent the Vancouver area and may have been avoiding a welfare check.
Coquitlam RCMP, which was in charge of the missing person’s file, had also invited Chief Clinton Key of the Key First Nation to be part of a working group.
“Was there enough done (to look for Elli)? I’m not going to judge, but I don’t think the justice system or the police are doing anything important to change the way they deal with our people, especially our women.” , said Key.
“She is OK. It only fits with the systemic racism we see in how these cases are handled.
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“I’m not impressed with how it was handled (the disappearance).”
Newly elected Key First Nation Solomon Reece suggested that if O’Soup were an “upper middle-class white girl from West Vancouver (who was missing), all resources would have been deployed to find her. But she only he was a more caring young Indian. “
The gang had posted a $ 10,000 reward for information that would have helped police find it, and Reece said he would have liked the province to have reached a more significant level of $ 100,000.
Reece and Key call for an impartial third party to investigate how the missing person’s case was handled and why Indigenous youth are overrepresented in foster care.
Reece, who is a second cousin of O’Soup, could not say for sure that the young man was in foster care when he disappeared.
Due to confidentiality issues, the ministry of child and family development cannot comment on a case or even confirm that it has been related to a child, youth or family, a ministry spokesman said in an email.
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