Investigators assigned to look into 1977 fatal crash that killed 5 aboriginal people

Thirty-nine years after a crash that took the lives of five aboriginal people, Quebec provincial police say six investigators have been assigned to the case.

The announcement came during a meeting with community members inManawan, the first such meeting since the deaths of their loved ones that day in 1977.

• Drowning deaths of 5 aboriginal people in Manawan come to light 39 years later

On the night of June 25, 1977, a van carrying eight passengers skidded off theroad and into the Milieu River near the town of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, about 170 kilometres north of Montreal.

The two white men on boardsurvived. The other five, all from theAtikamekwcommunity ofManawandrowned.

They were:

• Lionel Petiquay, 19
• Marie-Juliana Quitich, 24
• Marie-Nicole Petiquay, 15
• Thrse Flamand, 34
• Denis Petiquay, 18

"We are going to do all that is possible using current technology, current techniques to shed light on the case," said Guy Lapointe, aspokesman for the provincial police.

The investigatorswillspeak to witnesses who have information about the accident and will analyze other evidence tosee ifexperts intoxicology or other fields can add new information. That information will be brought toCrown prosecutors, who will decide if charges should be laid.

Family members said they were satisfied with the meeting. Francine Dub lost her nephew Lionel Petiquay in the crash.

"We hope that thing will progress so that we can finally know what happened and allow us to grieve," Dub said.

Families upset by how policehandled case

The two white men who survived said an hour after the crash, they lit a fireand waited until sunrise before walking 19 kilometres to warn police in Saint-Michel-des-Saints. But before they arrived, they stopped for a coffee.

The victims' families say they learned the news of the deaths not from police, but fromchildren who were going door to door.

They say aninvestigator never came to the community.

At the time, local police declared the crashan accident. Charges were never laid,despite the fact that a recently obtained coroner's report revealed the driver was impaired. In the report, the coroner calls the incident a crime.