Homicide victim Avontai Hartleib remembered for love and strength during vigil in Winnipeg | CBC News
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More than a dozen people gathered at the corner of Young Street and Sargent Avenue in Winnipeg Monday evening to honour and remember a First Nations teen described by those who knew her as strong, caring and loving.
People laid roses for Avontai Hartleib, 18, whose Feb. 14 death has been deemed a homicide by Winnipeg police.
Hartleib, a member of Sachigo Lake First Nation in Ontario, who had been living in Winnipeg “had a good head on her shoulders, even through the hardest of times,” said Ethan Tillingbell, who was in a relationship with her.
“She lost somebody and she didn’t cry and I find that very, very strong of her. She used to just say, ‘They’re in a better place’ and I like to think of it the same way [for her], I do,” he said.
Winnipeg police, in a news release earlier this month, said they responded to a call at a home on Young, near Sargent, where they found a deceased woman.
A 14-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder along with criminal negligence causing death.
Hartleib’s father, David Hartleib, previously told CBC News that Child and Family Services took his daughter into care before she turned one, and she grew up bouncing between group homes and foster homes.
She was pressured by her group of friends and consumed drugs, he said.
On Monday, Hartleib’s friend Michelle Abraham told CBC News that Hartleib became a sister to her.
“We weren’t sister by blood, but we were sisters by choice and we took chances on each other,” she said. “She is … missed and it’s going to be one of the hardest deaths I probably have to deal with.”
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson was also at Monday’s vigil and told the crowd she had met Hartleib about five years ago.
“In our culture we see each of our children as our own children and she was one of our children,” said Wilson. “I know that she was very loved by community.”
Fighting back tears, Tillingbell said he wishes he could have Hartleib back in his life.
“I really wish to see her one day once again,” said Tillingbell. “Even if it’s just for a conversation or just to say ‘what’s up,’ because it was a lot to lose her.”