Family of Colton Crowshoe says arrest in his homicide brought 'so much relief'
CBC
An arrest in the 2014 homicide of Colton Crowshoe in Calgary has brought up a lot of feelings for his family.
"There's so much relief we have gotten from this news, and we feel like a weight has lifted off our shoulders," said his cousin Hayley Starlight.
"But at the same time, this is just the beginning.… We're going to be reliving a lot of things that we have tried to heal from over the years. A lot of old wounds are going to reopen. A lot of questions are going to be answered. And those answers are probably going to be things we don't want to hear."
On Thursday, Calgary police said in a statement they had arrested a man without incident in connection to the homicide of the teenager and they were no longer looking for other suspects.
WATCH ABOVE | Hayley Starlight describes how she felt when she heard the news that charges had been laid in her cousin's death.
Police said they believe the accused knew Crowshoe and left with him from a party in northeast Calgary the night he disappeared.
Three weeks later, the teen's body was found in a water retention pond near Stoney Trail and 16th Avenue N.E.
It's alleged that Crowshoe, who was 18 when he died, was killed and then his body was left in the water.
In a statement on Friday, Calgary Police said Wiley Provost, 27, from Calgary was charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of Crowshoe.
The arrest came a few weeks after Crowshoe's family held a joint news conference with police pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
For eight years, Crowshoe's family has been searching for answers surrounding his death.
In 2014, they spoke out against the police investigation, accusing police of not taking his disappearance seriously because he was a young Indigenous man who'd had interactions with authorities in the past.
After a 32-month investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) into police conduct, no charges were laid. However, it was discovered there were several problems with the investigation and many mistakes had been made.
Starlight told CBC News that getting the news about the arrest is a great step forward.
