[URBAN NOTE] "Tina Fontaine last seen leaving with man in West End, says friend"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC reports on the testimony of a teenage friend of Tina Fontaine, a recently murdered teenage girl of First Nations background fifteen years old who has come to stand in for the myriads of murdered and missing native women across Canada. She recounts, among other things, how police knowing that Fontaine was missing did nothing to bring her in. These officers have since been placed on leave.

Tina Fontaine's final days are being recalled by a friend who was one of the last people to see the 15-year-old girl alive.

Fontaine's body was recovered from the Red River on Aug. 17, over a week after she was last reported missing.

​The teen had run away from her home on the Sagkeeng First Nation on July 1 and ended up in the care of a Winnipeg child and family services (CFS) agency. But she ran away from her placements numerous times.

The 18-year-old girl, who CBC News is calling "Katrina," says she met Fontaine while she was heading to a West End Winnipeg convenience store sometime between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Aug. 7.

"I just seen her sitting there and she looked young, so I just started talking to her, and she was under the influence," she told the CBC's Caroline Barghout.

"We just hung out for a bit and that's just how I met her."

Katrina said they hit it off right away and they spent most of the next three days together. She said both of them knew what it was like to be in CFS care.

"I knew the feeling of being alone — like emotionally and mentally when you, like, have nobody — and I guess that's where we connected," she said.