(Jonas Budd on the run from RCMP after allegedly kidnapping girl from Lac La Ronge home where girl’s boyfriend found dead. RCMP handout)
Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
The mother of a Lac La Ronge First Nation teen girl kidnapped in the early morning hours Wednesday had a restraining order against the alleged abductor, according to the Saskatchewan community’s chief.
RCMP officers from Saskatchewan and Manitoba are currently hunting for Jonas Budd who fled on foot into the Manitoba bush Wednesday afternoon after allegedly kidnapping Kayla Notamagan at about 3 a.m.
Police located Natomagan, 17, in Manitoba, just across the provincial border, shortly before Budd was said to have fled into the bush. Budd allegedly kidnapped Natomagan from her home in Lac La Ronge during an incident that also saw the discharging of a firearm.
Natomagan’s boyfriend, Dustin Bird, 17, was found dead at the home.
Lac La Ronge First Nation Chief Tammy Cook-Searson said Budd was not originally from the community.
She said Natomagan’s mother had a restraining order against Budd who was a former partner.
Cook-Searson said the community is reeling from Bird’s death.
“It has been a tragedy for the family and the community, we lost a young man, who was a positive young man and everybody loved him,” said Cook-Searson.
She said Bird used to chop kindling for his grandmother and was always willing to help out in his community.
“He was scholarship material, he was that type of person, he was doing so well,” said Cook-Searson.
The chief said the community hall was opened during the day for friends and family to gather and share in their grief. Cook-Searson said the community’s health workers were also on hand to offer grief counselling.
“We want to remember the young man we lost who was a strong individual in our community,” she said. “We are going to miss him.”
Condolences were pouring in on Bird’s Facebook wall early Wednesday evening. His Facebook page indicated he was “in a relationship” with Natomagan.
On Jan. 29 he posted a photo of train tracks and a sunset. Above the photo he typed in a “happy face” image. The words on the photo said, “When two people are meant for each other, no time is too long, no distance is too far, and no one can tear them apart.”
@JorgeBarrera
