By JOE BELANGER, THE LONDON FREE PRESS
A 16-year-old girl whose frozen body was found outside a childcare centre in a native community west of London will be buried Thursday.
Meanwhile, police continue to investigate how Sierra Phillips of Oneida First Nation ended up at the centre on Saturday.
Sources say she had been at a party Friday night and was dropped off near the child-care centre early Saturday.
Her body was found Saturday evening. Investigators were to review security camera videos to help piece together events.
Police have declined to release the cause of death, other than to confirm it was not a suicide but a “tragic set of circumstances.”
In a death notice in The Free Press, friends were to be received at 2225 Elm Ave. in Oneida Tuesday and Wednesday.
A funeral will be held Thursday from the residence starting at 11 a.m. with interment at Longhouse Cemetery in Oneida.
The loss comes one week after the death of another young person on an area native reserve.
Brendan Deleary, 15, killed himself Feb. 13. Soon after, there were reports he may have taken his life after being bullied repeatedly on school bus rides home to the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation outside London.
One Comment
This article brings me back to a chance meeting with a James River Chippewa at what is a sacred place to local First Nations People. When I spoke with him of the hard times of the Lakotah, one of whom ‘adopted’ me, he spoke from his own knowledge with me about the hard times of First Nations People in Canada and beyond. What I felt was given to me from this good good man is the simple statement that we concluded our conversation with. He simply stated this; “It’s a hard world.”. We can weep, and I do. We can try to forget, and I sometimes try this too. We can work so the People may live. I would like to hope that my pitiful actions, with the combined help of many others stronger than I, may somehow let my attempts add to success in this. Still, in the end, all we have of the past is what he gave me. My knowing that it IS a hard world. A branch may fall yet the tree may still live is my prayer to the Spirit of these Children and all First Nations People. rt