© Submitted by Belinda Merasty Frank Oteskan, 17, was last seen in the community on May 31, RCMP say.
The family of a 17-year-old boy in Chemawawin Cree Nation is offering a $16,000 reward for the teen, who has been missing for 15 days.
“It’s been really hard on us,” said Belinda Merasty, Oteskan’s adoptive mother, in an interview with CBC on Sunday. The money for the reward was raised by members of the community and surrounding communities, she said.
It’s been just over a week since Chief Clarence Easter initiated a search and rescue operation for the boy. The team has searched the entire community so far, and they’re expanding their search every day, yet they’ve found “absolutely nothing,” lead searcher, Robert Walker, said.
“Our hopes are up every day,” said Walker. “We want him home safe.”
RCMP received a report of the boy missing on May 25, a RCMP release on May 27 says. In a previous interview, Belinda told CBC News her sister last saw him at home the evening of May 21.
But recent tips indicate the teen was last seen in the community on May 31, RCMP said in an email Friday.
About 60 to 80 people have been out searching for Oteskan daily, Walker said. The team is receiving help from other community members too, he added.
But the search is taking its toll on those involved.
“We’re exhausted,” Walker said. “We keep our hopes up every day, and then, you know, nothing every day, and then people are getting tired.”
It has been especially difficult for Oteskan’s family.
“We just need to know that he’s OK,” said Peter Merasty, Oteskan’s adoptive father. “That he’s alive and not dead somewhere.”
Walker keeps the family updated about their search, Peter said. But Walker said it’s hard to tell Oteskan’s family that they found nothing.
“You wanna tell them that we have him, come get your son. That’s what I wanna do every day,” Walker said.
Oteskan is five feet tall, weighs 130 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes, the RCMP release says.
Walker said some searchers think they’ve seen a person who fits Oteskan’s description on a few occasions. He said one searcher saw him in the brush last Thursday.
“He called him by his name. He looked at him, and he’s 100 per cent sure that was him. But he took off into the bush,” Walker said.
But Peter said none they can’t confirm if the sightings were actually of Oteskan.
“Some people that report say that they see him, but, you know, that’s all, right?” he said.
Chief Clarence Easter said the RCMP’s K-9 unit and the Canadian Rangers helped search for the boy.
“It is getting frustrating…not knowing, you know, where he is or where it could be,” he said.
But MP for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, Niki Ashton, said more coordination and support from the RCMP is needed to make sure the search is as effective as possible.
“There’s a real demand for there to be greater coordination, including with policing,” Ashton said. “A local search group can only do so much.”
Ashton has been in contact with the RCMP who told her they’ve been involved and giving updates to the family, she said.
But Belinda said she wants the RCMP to be more involved.
“We don’t really know what they’re doing,” she said.
If more information is received that provides a possible area of interest to search, the RCMP’s team is prepared to return to the community, it told CBC Friday.
Ashton said it’s also important for RCMP to raise awareness about Oteskan still being missing. She added that people from other RCMP detachments should be brought in if they’re needed, given the few resources available at the Chemawawin detachment.
“The reality is that the RCMP has resources that are critical in searches.”
Community members and Oteskan’s family in Grassy Narrows First Nation are also in Chemawawin to help with the search, Ashton said.
In the meantime, Oteskan’s family hopes he will be home soon.
“We want him to know, like, that, you know, he’s not in trouble and for him just to come home.”
Anyone with information on Oteskan’s whereabouts is asked to call Chemawawin RCMP at 204-329-2000, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477, or secure tip online at www.manitobacrimestoppers.com.