It’s been six weeks since the body of Kayla Arkinson was found along a highway on Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba.
A handmade cross engraved with Arkinson’s name and birth date sits near the spot where the 25-year-old’s body was found in the early morning hours of June 24.
Under the sweltering heat of an early August sun, Arkinson’s family prepares to honour her life.
“She was just starting to realize the purpose of her life and then this happened,” Arkinson’s cousin Jamie Prince told APTN News at the vigil. “It’s sad that she can’t do what she wants to do now.”
The two were more like sisters than cousins. Prince spent her youth babysitting Arkinson and her siblings. She remembers Arkinson was a ‘bubbly’ person and a good mother to her own two young children.
The last time Prince saw Arkinson was the night before her body was found. The two were at a graduation party in the community.
The next morning Prince was on her way to work when she saw part of the highway blocked off.
“I was looking and then I looked through a spot of trees and there was somebody laying on the road,” said Prince. “[My] first thought, you know, [it’s] Kayla.”
Arkinson was found about six metres from her home.
On June 24, RCMP released a statement saying they received a report, “of a vehicle-pedestrian collision that occurred on Hwy 11, in the Sagkeeng First Nation community,” after a 48-year-old male struck a 25-year-old female as she was lying on the highway.
“She was pronounced deceased on the scene,” wrote RCMP.
Police later determined she had been struck earlier by another vehicle.
The family says the case remains open.
Clorissa Letander, Arkinson’s younger sister, says her days are slowly starting to feel normal again.
“I’m just living them day by day doing what I have to do for them and once I get used to everything I feel like I can finally start getting back into what I used to do,” she said.
She credits sports and writing for helping her work through her grief.
The vigil is also giving her a chance to heal and remember her sister’s life.
“It’s more about remembering her for who she was, how she was and how she liked to live life,” she said. “It’s more so celebrating she was at least able to live life.”
This isn’t the first tragedy for the family.
Inside the Arkinson home, pictures of Kayla are on display next to her younger brother Tyler.
The 14-year-old went missing in March 2010. His body was found in the community three months later.
“It just seems like with Tyler everyone forgot right away and they just stopped trying,” said Prince.
“With Kayla we still don’t know who hit her. If it was an accident or if it was on purpose, or drunk driving. We don’t know that.”
The family says no one was ever arrested in Tyler’s case.
APTN reached out to RCMP multiple times but did not receive a response.
Prince hopes the same doesn’t happen in Kayla’s case.
“It’s important to us that they keep trying to find justice for her. I just don’t want them to forget her,” she said.
