A group home worker in Winnipeg says she can’t stop thinking about an 18-year-old homicide victim she helped care for — and what more might have been done to protect her.

Avontai Hartleib was expressive, smart and had a big personality, said the worker, whom CBC is not identifying because she’s not authorized to speak about her work publicly.

The worker said Hartleib’s death in February has left her with “overwhelming sadness” and many unanswered questions about a lack of consequences and support in the Child and Family Services system. 

The worker believes conditions at the group home where she worked, and where Hartleib — an already at-risk woman in the care of CFS — lived may have further endangered her, pointing to a lack of enforcement of house rules such as curfews.

Police said last month officers found Hartleib dead at a residence in the 500 block of Young Street, near Sargent Avenue, around 7:30 a.m. on Valentine’s Day.

A 14-year-old boy has since been charged with second-degree murder and criminal negligence causing death in connection with her case.

Hartleib was a member of Sachigo Lake First Nation in Ontario and had been in care in Manitoba for the majority of her life, most recently with Animikii Ozoson Child and Family Services, her family says.

CBC News has learned that Hartleib was living at a group home run by Pathways Forward Youth Services, a business formerly known as Kildonan Common, according to provincial company documents.

Hartleib had recently turned 18, and it’s unclear if she was in extended care under CFS.

On the early morning of Feb. 14, a Saturday, Hartleib was out past her Friday curfew of midnight. She was with two underage girls from her home, one of whom had a court-imposed curfew, the worker CBC spoke with said.

The worker wasn’t working that night, but said the other girls later told her one heard “a loud bang” at the residence on Young where Hartleib was found. The other saw Hartleib’s body there.

All three were acquaintances of the accused boy, the worker said.

The two surviving youths later contacted Pathways Forward staff and were taken home.

The failure to enforce rules “snowballed into this extreme situation,” the worker said.

“This was an extremely high-risk group of individuals,” who weren’t adequately supported to break cycles, she alleged.

Ongoing pattern: worker

The group home residents’ behaviour sometimes demanded paramedic and police involvement, and included breaking curfew, rarely going to school, and consuming alcohol, cannabis and methamphetamine, according to the worker.

But there were few, if any, consequences, she said — part of what she calls an ongoing pattern that’s left her feeling helpless in the face of company protocols.

“I can attest that those [group home] rules were not enforced or strict,” she said.

“More often than not, those rules were broken. They were supposed to go to school or meet with their therapist … [but] again, not mandatory, no repercussions.”

She said staff were instructed not to chase residents or confront them when they left the group home, but to inquire where the youth were going and whether they would return by curfew.

She fears children and youth in care will continue to be at risk, and a situation like Hartleib’s could happen again, unless systemic changes are made.

A former case worker who worked with Pathways Forward for a decade says staff were hamstrung by “a lot of pushback” coming from CFS agencies around administering consequences at group homes.

Darlene Pelley, who until recently worked at the third-party provider, said staff encouraged residents to do activities at home, but lacked the authority to administer consequences for breaking rules or prevent them from leaving the group home.

The agencies “feel like natural consequences are natural consequences, and those should happen,” said Pelley, who knew Hartleib.

However, she questioned whether consequences would make a difference if they were permitted. 

“What would we do? Like, ‘You’re grounded.’ ‘OK, well I’m leaving anyway,'” said Pelley, who oversaw a caseload of 23 people aged 16 to 21 with Pathways Forward in her last position there.

“I do believe the staff do everything within their control to keep a youth inside. However, again, it’s not a locked unit, and youth can leave when they want.”

Investigation underway: province

When asked whether the province was looking into group home conditions around Pathways Forward or any of the agencies involved, Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine’s office said in an email an investigation was underway with CFS. 

In an earlier interview, Fontaine said if “folks … feel like maybe children are not getting the supports that they need,” there is a system “for them to bring that to the attention of the agency and the authorities.”

“They have an obligation to do that,” Fontaine said.

Shirlene Asham, the CEO of Southern First Nations Network of Care — of which Animikii Ozoson CFS is a member — said in an email it’s reviewing the case.

Animikii Ozoson Child and Family Services was asked about its policies and the allegations raised by the worker, but said in an email it has no comment at this point.

Scott Gray, a lawyer for Pathways Forward, responded to a request for comment with a letter saying he had been instructed to decline comment, citing confidentiality provisions in the Child and Family Services Act.

Struggle with addictions, depression: father

Avontai Hartleib’s father, David Hartleib, says his daughter had struggled with addictions and depression under CFS care, and he fought for years to get her back.

Her adjustment to living in a group home setting “was harsh at first, because the kids were older,” her father said, adding she had told him the home lacked privacy and offered few activities.

“My daughter always had to ask me for the Netflix [password],” he said.

He said while generally, some consequences — such as losing privileges — are key for rule-breaking behaviour, “what privileges is there to lose when there isn’t any privileges?”

He said he doesn’t know how long his daughter was living in the Pathways Forward home, or whether she had stayed in other group settings during her approximately three years in Winnipeg.

The worker who spoke with CBC said leading up to Avontai Hartleib’s death, the group home housed five people. It was usually staffed by two casual and full-time workers at a time, doing 12- or 24-hour shifts.

Both former Pathways Forward worker Pelley and the other worker said burnout was high among staff, especially those who did long shifts. Finding qualified applicants was also a challenge amid a shortage of workers, said Pelley, who helped with hiring.

Workers at the homes help prepare meals and clean, and drive residents to appointments, the worker said. They also keep a daily activity log for each young person, including descriptions of what they were wearing when they left home and with whom.

If they missed curfew, staff were to call the Child and Family All Nations Coordinated Response Network, or ANCR, which is in charge of all emergency and intake child and family services for the Winnipeg area. It would decide whether to contact police and help locate missing residents, the worker said.

Pelley said when youth left the home, ANCR didn’t always advise filing a missing person report, and police wouldn’t necessarily accept a report if the youth’s behaviour was repetitive.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s Const. Claude Chancy told CBC reports “are accepted regardless of timeframe.” Police did not get a missing person report for Hartleib on Feb. 14 before she was found dead, he said.

Neither Pelley nor the other worker could say whether ANCR was called when Hartleib left in the early morning hours of Feb. 14, but expected the agency would have been contacted given Pathways Forward’s protocols. 

Neither Pathways Forward nor the CFS agency would confirm or comment on whether staff had reached out to ANCR.

ANCR’s executive director, Sandie Stoker, said the agency bases each response on provincial protocols and standards and the young person’s individualized plan.

According to the organization’s latest annual report, ANCR’s safe ride program — which provides safe transportation for youths in care back to their placement if they’ve left or gone missing — got 4,419 requests and provided 3,244 rides in 2024–25.

There were 9,172 children in care that year, 349 of whom were in group care.

The majority of young people moving into Pathways Forward group homes have addictions that are hard to find treatment for in Manitoba, Pelley said.

Hartleib “was such a sweet young lady, and had tons of potential,” she said.

“I think all our systems just need to work better together and without the assumption that, ‘Oh, they always break curfew. Not much needs to be done,'” said Pelley.

“All our kids are full of trauma, and whether they’re using or not using, they’re at risk any time they’re out there.”