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YELLOW QUILL FIRST NATION, Sask. -- The RCMP has launched a criminal investigation after a three-year-old girl and her one-year-old sister died when their father took them outside dressed in diapers and little else as temperatures dipped to -50C with the wind chill.
Sometime after 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Christopher Pauchay, 25, left his home on Saskatchewan's Yellow Quill First Nation without a coat, taking along Cadence, 3, and Santana, 1.
At 5 a.m., Mr. Pauchay crawled alone to the door of a neighbouring home only 400 metres from his own, covered in frost and unable to speak from the effects of frostbite, hypothermia and alcohol.
Eight hours later he was finally alert enough to ask about his daughters -- a frightening question that set off two days of intense, futile searches.
Cadence's tiny, frozen body was found shortly after noon in a snowdrift 50 metres from where her baby sister's body had been uncovered a day earlier.
The children were about halfway between their home and the neighbouring residence in a small, partially constructed subdivision on a wide-open, snowdrift-covered tract of the reserve.
"Both girls were found with diapers and light tops on," Saskatchewan RCMP Sergeant Brad Kaeding said. "The girl [found] yesterday had a light T-shirt and the girl today had a light shirt or a light sweater. No hats, mittens, boots or pants or anything like that."
"It's definitely a criminal investigation at this point. Whether or not the evidence leads to charges is something the investigators are going to have to work diligently towards, possibly with consultation with other agencies, whether that be child welfare agencies or the Crown attorney's office."
Like several people contacted yesterday, Lance Crow, one of the volunteers who helped a dozen RCMP officers comb the neighbourhood for the two girls, described Yellow Quill as a community where alcohol abuse is rampant.
"Every cheque day, every welfare day, every allowance day, you see drunks. That's the main thing out here is drinking, partying. That's the main excitement, I guess. .... The little ones have to pay for everything. Everything an adult or parent does, the little ones pay."
Community member Margaret Roper was there when they found Santana.
"We're all having a hard time dealing with it," she said. "It's just so overwhelming. There's no hope. There's no future. I hope this is an eye-opener for community leaders. Our children have no future. They have no hope."
As the community of Yellow Quill, about 250 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, was plunged into mourning, the RCMP and relatives of Mr. Pauchay also pointed to alcohol being a factor in his ill-fated decision to wander out into the frigid night.
"He was carrying them. But he was drinking, and he must have blacked out," said Pearl Pauchay, Mr. Pauchay's mother. "That's what he said when we went to visit him in the hospital."
Ms. Pauchay speculated her son had set out to take the girls to his sister's home, "but they never made it that far."
Darlene Ahpay-Whitehead is still shaken by what happened after she was awakened by a banging on her door just before 5 a.m. on Tuesday. At first she mistook the noise for her dog, but when it persisted she looked outside and saw a man on her porch-- the only one on the street with the light left on.
"He was kneeling down and he was just covered in white frost," she told the National Post yesterday. "He was almost frozen. His whole fingers were white already, clenched stiff."
She didn't know who it was until she opened the door and Mr. Pauchay lurched inside. She covered him in a blanket and immediately called 911.
He was wearing only a long-sleeve shirt, Ms. Ahpay-Whitehead said, and smelled of alcohol.
"He was disoriented," she recalled. "He was groaning."
Paramedics arrived a half-hour later, and police shortly after. Mr. Pauchay was taken away to hospital in nearby Kelverton.
It wasn't until the girls' mother, Tracy Nippi, showed up at her house later that morning looking for Cadence and Santana that Ms. Ahpay-Whitehead learned the family was looking for the missing children.
Mr. Crow, her son-in-law, said searching for the girls in blizzard conditions and subzero temperatures was traumatic.
"It made your heart pump," he said. "I was just crying, thinking of the little ones.... You just wanted to find them."
He is a friend of Mr. Pauchay with a daughter and son of the same age. Their children often played together last summer.
He described Mr. Pauchay as a "stay-at-home dad" who looked after his children while his wife was out.
"He was a good father. He tried his best. He tried to do things for them all the time," said Mr. Crow. "He was always alone with his kids."
Ms. Nippi was reported to be devastated by the loss of her daughters.
Saskatoon Star-Pheonix
Close
Sometime after 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Christopher Pauchay, 25, left his home on Saskatchewan's Yellow Quill First Nation without a coat, taking along Cadence, 3, and Santana, 1.
At 5 a.m., Mr. Pauchay crawled alone to the door of a neighbouring home only 400 metres from his own, covered in frost and unable to speak from the effects of frostbite, hypothermia and alcohol.
Eight hours later he was finally alert enough to ask about his daughters -- a frightening question that set off two days of intense, futile searches.
Cadence's tiny, frozen body was found shortly after noon in a snowdrift 50 metres from where her baby sister's body had been uncovered a day earlier.
The children were about halfway between their home and the neighbouring residence in a small, partially constructed subdivision on a wide-open, snowdrift-covered tract of the reserve.
"Both girls were found with diapers and light tops on," Saskatchewan RCMP Sergeant Brad Kaeding said. "The girl [found] yesterday had a light T-shirt and the girl today had a light shirt or a light sweater. No hats, mittens, boots or pants or anything like that."
"It's definitely a criminal investigation at this point. Whether or not the evidence leads to charges is something the investigators are going to have to work diligently towards, possibly with consultation with other agencies, whether that be child welfare agencies or the Crown attorney's office."
Like several people contacted yesterday, Lance Crow, one of the volunteers who helped a dozen RCMP officers comb the neighbourhood for the two girls, described Yellow Quill as a community where alcohol abuse is rampant.
"Every cheque day, every welfare day, every allowance day, you see drunks. That's the main thing out here is drinking, partying. That's the main excitement, I guess. .... The little ones have to pay for everything. Everything an adult or parent does, the little ones pay."
Community member Margaret Roper was there when they found Santana.
"We're all having a hard time dealing with it," she said. "It's just so overwhelming. There's no hope. There's no future. I hope this is an eye-opener for community leaders. Our children have no future. They have no hope."
As the community of Yellow Quill, about 250 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, was plunged into mourning, the RCMP and relatives of Mr. Pauchay also pointed to alcohol being a factor in his ill-fated decision to wander out into the frigid night.
"He was carrying them. But he was drinking, and he must have blacked out," said Pearl Pauchay, Mr. Pauchay's mother. "That's what he said when we went to visit him in the hospital."
Ms. Pauchay speculated her son had set out to take the girls to his sister's home, "but they never made it that far."
Darlene Ahpay-Whitehead is still shaken by what happened after she was awakened by a banging on her door just before 5 a.m. on Tuesday. At first she mistook the noise for her dog, but when it persisted she looked outside and saw a man on her porch-- the only one on the street with the light left on.
"He was kneeling down and he was just covered in white frost," she told the National Post yesterday. "He was almost frozen. His whole fingers were white already, clenched stiff."
She didn't know who it was until she opened the door and Mr. Pauchay lurched inside. She covered him in a blanket and immediately called 911.
He was wearing only a long-sleeve shirt, Ms. Ahpay-Whitehead said, and smelled of alcohol.
"He was disoriented," she recalled. "He was groaning."
Paramedics arrived a half-hour later, and police shortly after. Mr. Pauchay was taken away to hospital in nearby Kelverton.
It wasn't until the girls' mother, Tracy Nippi, showed up at her house later that morning looking for Cadence and Santana that Ms. Ahpay-Whitehead learned the family was looking for the missing children.
Mr. Crow, her son-in-law, said searching for the girls in blizzard conditions and subzero temperatures was traumatic.
"It made your heart pump," he said. "I was just crying, thinking of the little ones.... You just wanted to find them."
He is a friend of Mr. Pauchay with a daughter and son of the same age. Their children often played together last summer.
He described Mr. Pauchay as a "stay-at-home dad" who looked after his children while his wife was out.
"He was a good father. He tried his best. He tried to do things for them all the time," said Mr. Crow. "He was always alone with his kids."
Ms. Nippi was reported to be devastated by the loss of her daughters.
Saskatoon Star-Pheonix
Close
