‘Her voice was stolen:’ Slain teen’s family looking for answers after acquittal
SAGKEENG FIRST NATION, Man. — Thelma Favel woke up every morning before going to the Winnipeg courthouse, looked around her room and wondered what her grand-niece might have thought when she stayed in the same hotel in her final weeks alive.
During the second-degree murder trial for Raymond Cormier — the man acquitted last month of killing Tina Fontaine — Favel wanted to put herself in the teenage girl’s shoes.
Favel stayed in the same downtown hotel where the young girl was placed by Child and Family Services and walked the same streets where Tina was last seen alive.
“I just found strength every day to get up and go. I walked the hallways, wondering which room she was in,” Favel told The Canadian Press. “I just felt so close to her there.”