Leon John
KITCHEKESIK
52
6
50 inches
50 inches
79 lbs
79 lbs
Indigenous
Male
In the quiet expanse of Gull Lake, Manitoba, a day of family time turned into a lifetime of sorrow on April 27, 1980. Seven-year-old Leon John Kitchekesik, a young Indigenous boy, was enjoying the day with his family at their cabin. He was walking along the shoreline with his three-year-old sister when a sudden scream from the little girl pierced the air. Her parents rushed to see what had happened, a sense of dread likely gripping them as they followed the small footprints in the snow. The tracks led to a small hole in the ice-covered lake, and terrifyingly, there were no footprints leading away. A land search was conducted, but the belief was that the young boy had tragically drowned. Leon was described as being 50 inches tall and weighing 79 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. On the day he vanished, he was wearing blue denim pants. The sudden and tragic nature of his disappearance left his family with an unfillable void. In the years that followed, without a body to lay to rest, his family’s grief remained raw and immediate. They sought a way to honor his memory and find a semblance of peace in their profound loss. To commemorate his life, Leon's family, members of the Tataskweyak Cree Nation, erected a large memorial cross on an island in the Nelson River, a place where they had last seen him. This sacred spot became a place of remembrance, a physical embodiment of their enduring love for a son and brother taken too soon. Decades later, this symbol of their grief and memory was removed by Manitoba Hydro, an act that the family described as desecrating his resting place and akin to losing him all over again. The case of Leon John Kitchekesik is a heartbreaking story of a young life presumed lost in a tragic accident, the enduring pain of a family who never had the chance for a proper goodbye, and their struggle to maintain a place of memory for a boy who vanished into the icy water.
Pants Denim, Blue
Apr 27, 1980
Gull Lake
Manitoba
D Division Missing & Exploited Persons Unit
Manitoba
204-983-6055
204-983-6055
Law Enforcement
201517172
D Division Missing & Exploited Persons Unit
Black
Brown
Brown
No
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