'I finally got to meet my mom': 45 years later, Sixties Scoop adoptee learns details of her mother's murder

ChristineMerastynever met her mother. But this week, she finally felt like she got to know her through the details she learned about her mother's murder and the photos found on her body at the time.

Merastyand her husband, along with her cousin and her mother's siblings, met in Winnipeg with two Manitoba RCMPofficers to learn for the first time how ClaraDantouzewas killed nearly 45 years ago.

"It's like meeting her.I finally got to meet my mom," saidMerasty. "This picture is the first time I am seeing a picture of my mom.It made me cry."

That framed photo was given to her by the RCMP officers.

Merastywas born on Christmas Day in 1970. Social workers were at the hospital waiting to take her from her 19-year-old mother.

She was adopted out four months later as part of the Sixties Scoop, during whichIndigenous children were taken from their familiesand placed in foster homes or putup for adoption by non-Indigenous families.

"They never contacted my grandparents. My grandparents would have taken me," Merastysaid.

"They didn't give my family a chance. I was just given away."

Grief, but no answers

Merastyfound her birth family 22 years later and that's when she learned her mother had been murdered.

With her grief came questions that had no answers. All her family knew about Clara's death was that her body was found in a field outside of Winnipeg in 1973.

"My late mom, she kept talking about our late sister," said JoeDantouze, Clara's younger brother.

"She was grieving all these years and she would cry.That is how she lived her life, until she passed away."

Dantouzesaid he doesn't remember Clara very well. He was a young boy when she came home from residential school in Cross Lake, Man., but she then moved to Winnipeg and would come back to the family's northern Manitoba home in Brochet occasionally to visit.

Dantouzewas home when police delivered the devastating news about his sister. He said policenever came back to tell the family any more.

His parents died without ever knowing how Clara died or if justice had been served.

'Families are left without knowing'

It wasMerastywho started digging. She said she found two newspaper articles about her mother's death, including one about the man who was arrested and jailed in connection with her death.

But she said she wanted to know why this information never made it north to her grandparents.

She turned to HildaAnderson-Pyrz, a liaison for the families ofmissing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, for help connecting withRCMP.

"I'm learning about a lot of historical casesa prime example with Christine's family, that's over 40 years old," saidAnderson-Pyrz, who works for ManitobaKeewatinowiOkimakanak.

She said communication between police and families, especially those in isolated communities, has historically been poor.

"They didn't notify them about what happened or the court process or the outcome," she said. "Their families are left without knowing, and it's important to know and have that closure and healing and to be able to go forward."

On Wednesday,Anderson-Pyrzco-ordinated the meeting betweenMerastyand her family withRCMP.

Nearly 45 years after Clara's death, theycame together in Winnipeg, on the16thfloor ofMKO'sPortage Avenue office.

"What we heard was, she and my dad, they had an argument, and she went out and she met the man who murdered her[at] a bar on Main Street," saidMerasty.

"[The RCMP]also shared where she was found and the date."

Merastysaid her mother died of exposure after being beaten and left in a field east of Winnipeg.

The family finally learned a man was arrested two years later, in 1975. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1976 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

'I know what happened and I am glad'

ForDantouzeand his older sister, TheresaDettanikkeazhe, it was the first time they heard these details.

"Just like yesterday it happened," saidDettanikkeazhe. "I hope I can go on from now and feel better. I know what happened and I am glad."

The family said they appreciate the meeting with officers and were surprised when police gave them two photos that were on Clara at the time of her death. One showed Clara, Joeand their parents in Brochet. The other was of her best friend's children.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Daniel Barnabe was one of the officers who met with the family. He is also the officerin charge of Project Devote, the province's missing and murdered Indigenous women's task force.

He says the closed homicide file, which included the photos, was held in archives in Ottawa, and was re-examined after Clara's family testifiedat the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls inquiry hearings.

"As soon as investigators with the Manitoba RCMP were advised that photos of Clara existed, we began the process so that they could be immediately returned to her family," he said in a statement emailed to CBC News.

"It was our hope that by returning the photos to the family as well as by sharing information about the investigation, we could help in their continued journey of healing."

The Manitoba RCMP now has a full-time employee to communicatewith the families of missing or murdered people, Staff Sgt. Barnabe said.

"The family liaison is critical to current investigations as they provide families with regular updates, information, support services and referrals to community agencies," he said.

ClaraDantouze's family has visited the spot where Clara's body was found, where they said prayersand left a rosary that belonged to their late mother.

They hope to get permission to place a cross at that location, so her story never goes untold again.

Sixties Scoop adoptee learns details of her mother's murder

6 years ago

Duration 2:10

Family of Clara Dantouze got long-awaited answers about her 1973 murder after meeting with RCMP this week