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Iqaluit teen, 13, found dead in her home

More than a dozen RCMP assigned to case

Leevee Naglingniq, nine, holds a candle in memory of her cousin Jennifer Naglingniq, who was found dead in her Iqaluit home just after midnight on Dec. 6. Iqaluit RCMP have not released the cause of death but are treating the 13-year-old’s death as suspicious.

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(PHOTO BY KIRSTEN MURPHY)

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KIRSTEN MURPHY

Iqaluit RCMP members remain tight-lipped about the death of a 13-year-old Iqaluit girl found dead in her home just after midnight on Dec. 6.

Yellow flagging tape and emergency vehicles have surrounded house 2230B in Iqaluit around the clock since police discovered Jennifer Naglingniq’s body.

Staff Sgt. Mike Jeffrey said 15 RCMP members are working on the case, including a forensic identification officer from Edmonton. Naglingniq’s body was sent to Edmonton for an autopsy this week.

Naglingniq, a student at Iqaluit’s Inuksuk High School, lived in a public housing unit behind the Apex Road Quick-Stop convenience store with her mother, Nicotye Naglingniq.

Despite indications that the death may have been a homicide, Jeffrey would not rule out any possibilities.

"It’s being treated as a suspicious death, meaning the apparent cause of death is not known at this time," Jeffrey said.

In Nunavut, though, the RCMP do not usually issue news releases or a deceased person’s name in cases where suicide is obvious.

Cpl. Benoit Dejardins, a media relations officer with RCMP headquarters in Ottawa, declined to talk about specific details of the case. He said, though, that sudden deaths are often treated as homicides until an autopsy or other evidence proves otherwise.

The length of such investigations may vary from case to case, he said.

"It could take months, weeks or days," Desjardins said.

Administrators at Inuksuk High School, where Naglingniq was in Grade 8, worked round the clock this week to provide support for the school’s 460 students.

As a tribute to the popular teen, Naglingniq’s death was mentioned at a Dec. 6 vigil at the high school marking the 13th anniversary of the 1989 Montreal massacre, when a deranged gunman shot 14 women at L’Ecole Polytechnique engineering department.

"The news of the tragic death of a 13-year-old girl in our community is devastating... This tragedy brutally raises the significance of today’s vigil," said Maureen Doherty, representing the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council.

Inuksuk students were visibly upset and looking for answers.

"She was a nice girl, very pretty with lots of friends," said Crystal Mathewsie, who knew Naglingniq since kindergarten days. "I feel sad. I can’t sleep and I’m always looking over my shoulder."

Crisis workers, an Anglican minister and RCMP officers met with students and parents over the weekend.

Making an already tense situation more difficult this week was news of a 17-year-old male charged with careless use of a firearm and pointing a firearm.

The youth, also an Inuksuk student, was arrested after someone went on a shooting spree in Iqaluit on Dec. 8. Police say eight to 10 shots were fired, but no one was hurt.

Cpl. Dave Kalist said the firearm incident is not related in any way to the girl’s death.

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