Port Coquitlam teen found dead in Vancouver had been missing for a year (2024)

Members of the Saskatchewan First Nation that was home to a missing teen found dead on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside say an inadequate police investigation is evidence of systemic racism against Indigenous peoples.

Noelle “Elli” O’Soup, 14, was identified as one of two people whose bodies were found on May 1 in a room in an apartment block on Heatley Avenue at Hastings Street, according to Vancouver police.

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“Earlier this week VPD received confirmation from the B.C. Coroners Service that Noelle was one of the two people discovered May 1,” said spokeswoman Const. Tania Visintin in an email. “Until that time, her identify had been unknown as we were awaiting identification from B.C. Coroners Service.”

The cause of death wasn’t released, nor was the name of the other person.

“We met privately with Noelle’s family members yesterday (Thursday) and will continue to provide them with support and information as the investigation continues,” Visintin said.

Noelle had been missing since May 12, 2021, when she left her Port Coquitlam home “without permission,” according to a Coquitlam RCMP release at the time that included a photo and asked for the public’s help in finding her.

Police said she was known to frequent the Vancouver area and may have been avoiding a wellness check.

Coquitlam RCMP, which was in charge of the missing person file, had also invited Chief Clinton Key of the Key First Nation to be part of a task force.

“Was there enough done (to look for Elli)? I am not going to judge but I don’t believe the justice system or the police are doing anything significant to change how they deal with our people, especially our women,” Key said.

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“It is very sad. It just fits in with the systemic racism that we see in the how these cases are handled.

“I am not impressed with how (the disappearance) was handled.”

Newly elected Key First Nation councillor Solomon Reece suggested that if Noelle were a “white, upper middle class girl from West Vancouver (who was missing), any and all resources would have been deployed to find her. But she was just another Indigenous youth in care.”

The band had posted a $10,000 reward for information that would have helped police find her, and Reece said he would have liked the province top it up to a more meaningful level of $100,000.

Reece and Key are calling for an impartial third-party to investigate how the missing person case was managed and why Indigenous youth are overrepresented in foster care.

Reece, who is a second cousin of Noelle, couldn’t say for certain that the girl was in care when she disappeared.

Because of confidentiality concerns, the Ministry of Children and Family Development cannot comment on a case or even confirm it was involved with a child, youth or family, a ministry spokesperson said in an email.

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