Bodies found frozen near Canada-U.S. border confirmed to be family from India
CBC
Four people found frozen in a Manitoba field near the Canada-U.S. border last week have been officially identified as a family of four from India.
The bodies of husband and wife Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, and Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, were discovered in a field just north of the border on Jan. 19, alongside their three-year-old son, Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel.
The body of their other child was also found nearby, officials said last week. She has now been identified as their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel.
The identities of the family were confirmed by the High Commission of India in Ottawa in a news release Thursday.
At a news conference later Thursday afternoon, Manitoba RCMP Chief Supt. Rob Hill confirmed that while Mounties initially identified the people found as a man, woman, teenage boy and infant, the children who died were actually a girl and a toddler.
"We apologize for that error, but please understand that the frozen state in which the bodies were found and the clothing worn by the family made the initial confirmation difficult. It is also why the process to confirm the names took an extended period of time," Hill said.
Autopsies of the four were done on Wednesday by Manitoba's chief medical examiner and confirmed that the family members died of exposure to extreme weather conditions.
RCMP have been working on the investigation closely with liaison officers in New Delhi, India, and Washington, D.C., Hill said.
They've also been in regular contact with Indian consular officials, who arrived in Winnipeg on Saturday and helped to notify the family's next of kin in India earlier Thursday morning.
The Consulate General of India in Toronto has been in touch with the family and is providing support, the High Commission release said.
Hill said investigators have determined the Patel family arrived in Toronto on Jan. 12 — their first point of entry into Canada.
They then made their way to the Manitoba community of Emerson, near the international border, around Jan. 18.
Police are still trying to determine the details around their arrival in Toronto and how they got to Manitoba, he said.
No abandoned vehicle was found on the Canadian side of the border near where the bodies were discovered, which indicates someone drove the family there and left, Hill said.
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