Manitoba RCMP say Xavia Skye Lynn Butler is the victim of a homicide. Photo: RCMP
Content warning: This story contains disturbing subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.
Manitoba RCMP say they are now investigating the discovery of a child’s remains in a barn on June 3 as a homicide.
They say they have identified the victim as Xavia Skye Lynn Butler, a girl who would have been one to two years old at the time.
Her remains were discovered in a building on a property located off Highway 6 in the Rural Municipality of Grahamdale in Manitoba’s Interlake region, about 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
“Xavia’s death is being investigated as a homicide,” said Gypsumville RCMP in a news release Friday. “The last time RCMP investigators have been able to physically place Xavia was approximately a year before she was located deceased, and they are looking for the public to help them further identify her whereabouts during that time.
“There were no missing person reports filed regarding Xavia.”
Any photos
RCMP are asking the public for any photos taken of Xavia after March 2022.
“We are hoping those photos will have date and time stamps on them to help us build a better timeline of her life,” they said in the release.
“We also ask anyone who physically saw Xavia after March 2022 to reach out to us as well to provide that information.”
When she was first located, RCMP said the remains appeared to be those of an “infant child”.
RCMP said they searched the property after receiving a report of “found human remains”.
Absolutely tragic
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew called the case “absolutely tragic.”
“When we think of such a young life being lost and that the circumstances are being investigated as a homicide, this is one of the worst things that can happen, bar none,” Kinew said Friday.
“As a provincial government, when something like this happens in Manitoba, it makes you stop and take stock of what is happening across this land and resolve that … we will have an attention towards preventing incidents like this from happening again.”
Early details of the case bear some similarities to the death of Phoenix Sinclair in 2005. The five-year-old girl was not reported missing and, nine months after she was killed, her body was found near a landfill at the Fisher River Cree Nation north of Winnipeg.
Her mother, Samantha Kematch, and Kematch’s common-law husband, Karl McKay, were later convicted of first-degree murder, and the death led to a public inquiry.
Anyone with information about Xavia or photos to share is asked to call the Manitoba RCMP Major Crime Services tip line at 431-489-8112.
-with files from The Canadian Press
