The man acquitted for the 2014 murder of Winnipeg teen Tina Fontaine died in Ottawa, police in that city confirmed on Friday.
Ottawa police said Friday Raymond Cormier died on April 3 in the nation’s capital, not in Kenora, Ont., as previously reported by media.
They said they’ve determined Cormier’s death is not suspicious.
Thelma Favel, Tina Fontaine’s great-aunt, told CBC News earlier this week homicide detectives informed her about Cormier’s death.
In 2018, a jury acquitted Cormier, who had been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old girl originally from Sagkeeng First Nation.
The teen had gone missing in July 2014. Her body was found wrapped in plastic and a duvet cover in Winnipeg’s Red River that August.
Tina’s death fuelled calls for the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Crown prosecutors decided not to appeal the jury’s decision to acquit Cormier, and no one else has been charged in Tina’s death.
Favel said she’s still convinced Cormier is guilty and that two years ago, she received a letter from a relative of Cormier who claimed he had confessed to killing the teen.