Caregiver expects charges in death of toddler found in barn

Article content

RCMP continue to investigate the death of a toddler whose remains were discovered in a rural Manitoba barn, while the child’s former caregiver says she is confident that whoever is responsible for the girl’s death will one day face justice.

“I have my suspicions, so I am expecting charges to be laid,” Natalie Anderson said on Tuesday morning at Memorial Park in downtown Winnipeg, where a sacred fire burns in honour of Xavia Skye Lynn Butler.

RCMP said the remains of a young child, later identified as Xavia, were discovered in a barn on a property in the RM of Grahamdale in June. Police said the girl would have been between one and two years old when she died, and they were investigating her death as a homicide.

Article content

The toddler, from the Pinaymootang First Nation, was never reported missing, according to police.

Over the weekend, RCMP announced they would be canvassing in the area, going door to door to talk to residents, as they continue to investigate the girl’s death and attempt to build a timeline.

According to Anderson, she raised Xavia from the time she was born until she was approximately nine months old, after she made an agreement with the child’s biological mother who is also Anderson’s first cousin, to care for Xavia.

“She didn’t want to raise the baby, and she didn’t want to adopt her out or have an abortion, so we created an agreement that I would take her and raise her,” Anderson said.

In the time they were together, Anderson said she saw Xavia as her daughter and hoped to continue raising her.

Article content

Article content

“She was precious, she was my world,” Anderson said. “That baby was a gift.”

According to Anderson in March of 2022, a CFS worker informed her that the biological mother wanted Xavia back, and she said Xavia was removed from her home, despite what she said was no previous CFS involvement regarding her care of the infant.

“That was the last time I ever saw her,” Anderson said. “That was my baby, it was heartbreaking. It broke me, it broke me as a woman, and it broke me as a mom.”

RCMP confirmed that investigators were last able to physically place Xavia’s location about a year before her death.

Anderson said that so far she has faith in the work investigators are doing, and faith that there will be charges laid in Xavia’s death.

Article content

“I believe it’s a matter of time,” she said. “They have to be very thorough with this, but they’ve been working really, really hard on this so I’m hoping charges are laid soon.

“There needs to be justice for my baby.”

But Anderson is also angry because she said had Xavia stayed with her she would still be alive today.

“Had they honored our agreement she would be alive,” Anderson said. “And now it’s like a huge chunk of my heart has been ripped out.”

Police have confirmed Xavia was not in the care of child and family services at the time of her death, and said investigators are looking for any photos of Xavia taken after March 2022.

Police are also asking anyone who saw the girl after March 2022 or who has any information about her death to contact the RCMP Major Crime Services tip line at 431-489-8112.

Article content

The Winnipeg Sun reached out to the province, which oversees child and family services in Manitoba, but a spokesperson said the province would not comment on any specific cases regarding CFS.

“The department would not be able to confirm any of these details, as it is not able to discuss the records of a specific child in care,” the spokesperson said.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

Article content