A former caregiver of a toddler found dead in a barn in northern Manitoba says she wishes the girl was still in her custody.
“She was a happy little girl, she was always smiling, she was always laughing,” said Natalie Anderson. Anderson’s cousin was the girl’s mother.
On June 3, RCMP were called to a barn in the RM of Grahamdale, 210 kilometres north of Winnipeg where her remains were discovered.
Police said her death is being investigated as a homicide.
Anderson said she raised Xavia until she was nine months old. She claims she had an agreement with her cousin to raise the child from birth.
She said she last saw Xavia in-person in March 2022 after the child was placed back into her biological mother’s care through Child and Family Services.
She’d have regular video calls until one day in 2022 they were cut off.
“I didn’t really have an explanation. Like, she didn’t tell me why she was stopping, or she didn’t, there was just really no communication,” she said.
Xavia’s family is originally from Pinaymootang First Nation.
“If Xavia was still with me I’m pretty sure, well, she’d still be alive if she was still with me,” Anderson said.
RCMP are asking the public for any photos taken of Xavia after March 2022 when she was last physically seen.
