The bodies of five missing persons have been discovered in Thunder Bay over the past month and now northern First Nations leaders are once again publicly questioning the competence of the embattled local police service. 

Ontario Provincial Police pulled the body of Webequie First Nation member Kelsey Anderson from the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway on Sunday. The 36-year-old who was in Thunder Bay for job training was last seen on May 9.

While a team of 85 search and rescue volunteers were looking for Anderson along the river, they discovered the body of another man, Richard Graham, who was declared missing in July 2024. Searchers found the 42-year-old hanging high from a tree on the riverbed, 100 metres away from the bridge where Anderson’s body was found.

Those incidents came a week after the bodies of 25-year-old Nodin Skunk and 23-year-old Ashlynn Bottle from Mishkeegogamang First Nation were found in abandoned grain elevators on the city’s south side. Sixty-two-year-old, non-Indigenous Daniella Nekuliak was found dead near a lake on the city’s north side in late April.

Thunder Bay Police Service communications spokesperson CJ Goater issued a statement that, “no information is available regarding any investigative activity” in the Graham case, while he called the other four deaths “private family matters.” He added, “There is no risk to public safety as reported through media releases involving some of the aforementioned cases,” but would not say whether investigators suspect foul play was involved.

TBPS missing persons coordinator detective constable Jeff Saunders says his department’s current caseload is consistent with the 800 missing persons calls it receives annually.

For decades, First Nations leaders have scrutinized police responses to missing persons cases and sudden deaths in public space. In 2015, Ontario conducted an eight-month inquest into the deaths of seven young people from NAN territory who died in Thunder Bay between 2000 and 2011 while attending school, because Canada does not make secondary education available in their home communities. Four were discovered in the city’s waterways. The now-defunct Office of the Independent Police Review Director found that police investigated those deaths so poorly that they ought to be reinvestigated, an effort that produced identical outcomes and ended in apologies to the families.

The police watchdog findings of systemic racism in how police investigate the deaths of Indigenous people and other probes have produced over 550 recommendations for institutional change. As for oversight, the police’s governance board has been dissolved twice since 2018, the second time after police unethically investigated their own Indigenous board chair.

Retired police chief Sylvie Hauth awaits trial for allegedly misleading a provincial investigation into that incident. A court found the police’s lawyer not guilty of those same charges in April. Also in April, a Thunder Bay police staff sergeant was served a three-year jail sentence for obstruction and breach of trust for an unrelated warrantless entry, search, seizure, and arrests, which a judge called “militantly illegal police conduct.”

This week, First Nations leaders are once again raising questions about the local police service’s communication and competency.

“Distrust of the police is growing,” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler posted to social media on Wednesday. He is requesting high-level meetings regarding search and rescue protocols with the police, the city, and likely the province.

Fiddler says one family was told in error that their loved one had been found. Anderson’s family members were “horrified” when police posted a final update without notifying them. He says police ignored the requests of search leaders for regular meetings.

“I am increasingly concerned about miscommunication from the police to our grieving families and search leaders,” the spokesperson for 49 First Nations across far northern Ontario wrote.

Moreover, Fiddler said Indigenous search teams succeeded where Thunder Bay police failed. Police allegedly told searchers on May 11 that a full search of the abandoned grain elevators were unsuccessful in finding Bottle or Skunk. Fiddler says a grandmother told him the missing youths were still in there. Search teams found the missing youths on that site three days later.

“Indigenous searchers do not rely on protocol and procedure,” Fiddler wrote. “They are guided by the spirits who lead them where they need to go. In the tragic case of Ashlynn and Nodin, the spirits told our searchers where to look but the authorities did not listen. They discount our knowledge and culture because they don’t respect it.”

In an interview, Fiddler called on the City of Thunder Bay, the Thunder Bay police, and other agencies to meet with regional First Nations to coordinate search efforts, pointing out there are still outstanding recommendations from a decade-old inquest with ties to these waterways.  

“It’s really very troubling, actually, that this has become such a regular occurrence where family after family is out there, week after week, and searching for a lost loved one,” he said. “I wish we had a better system of doing these types of searches.”

Three of these five deaths were constituents of Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa, whose riding is a third of Ontario’s entire landmass.

“The problem of missing people in Thunder Bay is not new, but it feels like we are at a tipping point,” Mamakwa said in the Legislature on Wednesday. “It is time to come together to end this crisis because no more families should go through this.”

In a written statement, a City of Thunder Bay spokesperson issued prior to police confirming Anderson’s death, Michelle Williams expressed “sincere concern” for his family and community.

“We remain committed to working with partners to strengthen coordination and communication in these circumstances, recognizing the important role of police and partner agencies in leading investigations and searches,” her statement reads.

As for police willingness to meet with First Nations leaders, Goater says, “The Thunder Bay Police Service continues to collaborate with community partners on missing persons cases. Communications with Indigenous leadership is ongoing as appropriate.”

Jon Thompson is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter based in Thunder Bay. Contact him with tips and story ideas at Jon@ricochet.media.