Warning: This story contains content about missing and murdered Indigenous men, boys and 2S (MMIMB2S) and may be distressing – the Hope for Wellness hotline is available 24/7 at 1-855-242-3310.
Across the sprawling landscapes of North America, a silent epidemic is unraveling the fabric of many Indigenous communities, where Indigenous men, boys and two spirited people are more likely to be the victim of a murder or to go missing than any other demographic.
Fathers, brothers, uncles, and grandfathers, each with their own story.
And for Eugenia Oudie, the epidemic hits close to home.
On Sept. 6, 2015, her son was found dead in a Vancouver storm drain.
“He was always kind,” she said with a smile.
As she grieves the loss of her only son, she lights a match to smudge.
She wants to cleanse and purify before she begins to tell the story of Charles Oudie.
“He said, ‘mom, I want to play hockey, that’s all I want to do is play hockey.’ And then I guess he would sneak out late at night and play hockey by himself,” she said laughing.
The 26-year-old’s dreams were cut short when police say he fell into a storm drain while attempting to retrieve his cell phone and died.
“It was a long weekend, Labor Day weekend, and I was debating whether to attend a powwow before coming home or just come straight home,” she said.
Oudie is a traditional jingle dress dancer, it’s something she says she’s found healing in.
When Charles Oudie, originally from Waywayseecappo First Nation in Manitoba, wasn’t playing hockey, he would join his mother at the powwow, where he danced the grass dance.
Photos, medals and different accomplishments Charles earned in his short lifetime are on display in her studio apartment.
She admits, it’s hard for her to understand how it all came to this.
“I got home, and he was really happy and – sorry, just a moment,” she said while choking back tears.
The two talked briefly and Charles mentioned he’d be going out with some friends that evening.
“He called while I was at Walmart, he called me and that’s the last time I talked with him.”
It’s been nearly a decade since he passed away, but the memories of his final moments alive are just as painful now as ever.
“Well, they went to the casino to watch a band at a downtown casino and then I heard that they moved on to a bar downtown,” she said.
According to multiple reports, they went to a friend’s place in East Vancouver where he was asked to leave the residence around 4 a.m.
A passerby discovered Charles Oudie’s body the morning after his night out.
The details are disturbing.
He was found in a T-shirt, with his pants sitting at thigh level, the left pant leg was rolled up and he had no socks or shoes on.
His body was upside down and wedged into the storm drain.
And many of his personal items were strewn across the back alley.
According to the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), “Oudie’s feet are approximately 12 inches below the top of the [drain], therefore making it hard to see anyone in the chamber unless you are standing directly over it.”
Charles Oudie was 178 cm (5’ 10’’) tall; the storm drain he was found in is 123 cm (four feet) deep.
“It doesn’t appear suspicious, merely it appears to be just a tragic accident,” said the VPD in an interview the day after Oudie’s remains were found.
Eugenia Oudie filed a formal complaint with the VPD on Oct. 1, 2015, stating the police missed steps in their investigation.
On Oct. 6, 2015, the VPD major crimes unit re-opened the investigation as a homicide.
The case continued to be investigated as a homicide until Dec. 15, 2017, when the case was closed again.
APTN Investigates asked the VPD why they initially closed the case, re-opened it and closed it for a second time.
“The circumstances surrounding Charles’s death were unusual,” they said in an emailed statement. “However, our investigation, which included independent findings from the BC Coroners Service, found no evidence that Charles died as the result of a crime.”
It was devastating for Elisha Williams to hear her brother’s case was closed again.
“I felt like they didn’t care about Charles,” she said. “It felt like, oh, here’s another native in East Van dying.”
Williams doesn’t believe the police theory.
“It looked like my brother got beat up, it doesn’t look like he fell in a drain and just died,” said Williams.
The condition of Charles’ body was documented in an autopsy report obtained by APTN.
Oudie had several bruises, cuts, abrasions and redness to the skin as well as the tip of the skin torn off one finger.
His family wonders if these are these signs of a night out gone wrong or was it foul play.
As the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous men, boys and Two Spirit, or MMIMB2S unfolds, Oudie holds close the memories of her son.
She’s set on finding answers to some of the lingering questions she can’t escape.
“There are a lot of them that are missing out there and why were they murdered and why [do] we have to go through that?” said Oudie, referring to the MMIMB2S crisis.
According to Statistics Canada, Indigenous men are seven times more likely to be the victim of a murder than non-Indigenous men and are four times more likely to be murdered than Indigenous women.
It’s been more than nine years since Eugenia Oudie went back to the site where her son’s remains were found.
A gentle gust of wind rolls through the neighborhood and she feels his presence.
“I keep thinking about that day that, that evening when they first brought me here to the site and it’s just a lot of memories are flooding back.”
She finds a necktie nearby and says a prayer to honor her son before leaving.
A garage door 15 feet away begins to open and a woman walks out.
Oudie introduces herself to the woman, explaining that her son passed away right behind the woman’s house nine years ago.
“This is a quiet neighborhood,” said Anne, whose real identity can’t be revealed due to privacy reasons. “We know each other – the neighbors really well.”
Anne lives next door to the house where Charles Oudie was in the moments before he died. It was owned by a woman APTN is calling Barb.
“[Barb] did mention to us afterward, the lady here whose son, I think knew your son, that what had happened was that the police were investigating. There’s a lot of unanswered questions that we’re trying to get at, like the way he was found for instance,” said Oudie.
“I guess you probably had a chance to talk to [Barb]?” Anne asked.
Oudie shakes her head in disagreement.
“What I could do is if you give me your phone number, I can contact [Barb] and tell her that you want to get some more information,” said Anne.
Oudie hoped that Barb would reach out. The grieving mother says she still has questions about what happened that night.
Although Anne offered to facilitate a connection, the conversation between Barb and Eugenia Oudie never happened.
But in an emailed statement on her behalf, Barb’s employer stated, “There are no answers [Barb or her son] can offer to provide comfort to the family.” The email also mentioned that APTN’s attempts to reach out have been distressing for her.
Due to privacy reasons, Barb’s true identity cannot be revealed.
The VPD say no one was ever considered a suspect in Charles Oudie’s death.
In the spring of 2024, Oudie filed an access to information request to recover her son’s belongings, items that held sentimental value.
When the information request came back, she was shocked by the findings.
According to the police report, after the case was closed in 2017, the VPD burned evidence.
Including witness statements, DNA swabs, and the items of clothing Oudie wanted back from her son.
Only a few pieces of evidence were submitted to the RCMP lab for testing.
This included a swab that had two DNA profiles found on the underside of the storm drain grate.
According to the report, one DNA profile belonged to Charles Oudie, but the identity of the other profile is still unknown.
“If a profile is developed, this may clarify who removed the grate,” wrote an officer in his police notebook.
Curiously, the coroner’s report only indicated one DNA profile was found on the storm drain cover and that it belonged to Charles Oudie.
The VPD and the BC Coroner’s Service did not directly answer questions about the DNA results.
The VPD said in an emailed statement that their investigation was “thorough and complete” and that their findings were “based on an analysis of all of the evidence”.
“If someone [has] information or evidence to the contrary, we encourage them to contact us immediately,” said the VPD in an email.
It’s unclear if the second DNA profile was ever tested or if the results of that profile yielded a second identity.
The Oudie family still wonders who else came into contact with the storm drain cover.
The Law Students’ Legal Advice Program (LSLAP) at the University of British Columbia is now representing Eugenia Oudie. The LSLAP says it has written an official letter to the VPD calling for additional information as well as the reopening of the investigation into the death of Charles Oudie.”
Oudie says she’s hoping to find out what really happened to her son that September night.
“There’s no way that’s an accidental death,” Oudie said. “Somebody always knows something, just come forward.”
