Tears flow at Thunder Bay hearing for missing and murdered Indigenous women inquiry
A grieving mother, clutching a feather gifted to her by an elder, wiped back tears on Monday as she recounted the torment of losing her daughter — one of dozens of missing and murdered Indigenous women a public inquiry is investigating.
As the first witness to testify at the start of three days of hearings in Thunder Bay, Ont., Anita Ross told the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of her mounting despair the evening her daughter, Delaine Copenace, 16, disappeared in February last year.
“She went for a walk with other teens,” Ross, of Kenora, Ont., testified, as a photograph of her dead daughter sat on a nearby empty chair. “She never returned.”
Ross said provincial police were initially dismissive of her concerns, suggesting the girl was probably just drunk somewhere. But Ross said Delaine, who had a twin sister, was responsible and always let her family know where she was. They began searching, putting up posters, contacting everyone they knew, activating social-media networks.