Baker Lake woman freezes to death in blizzard

Members of a search and rescue party found the frozen body of a young woman near Baker Lake on April 1. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

The disappearance of a young woman in Baker Lake ended in tragedy April 1, when members of the local search and rescue commitee found her frozen body on the road to the community graveyard.

Mariah Mautaritnaaq, 28, had left her mother’s home on Monday, March 29, as a blizzard descended on the community.

Although she did not return home, Mautaritnaaq made a telephone call the following morning to a local construction company.

Police said she wanted to know when her boyfriend, the father of her three-month old infant, might be returning to the community.

After that, there was no word from Mautaritnaaq, said police.

RCMP and local searchers looked for Mautaritnaaq, a diagnosed schizophrenic, throughout the blizzard, which only lifted on the morning of Thursday, April 1.

More than a dozen members of the search and rescue committee then headed out of the community on snowmobiles to look for Mautaritnaaq.

They discovered her frozen body lying about a half a kilometre out of town, on the road leading to the graveyard.

When depressed, Mautaritnaaq often headed out to this graveyard where her grandmother was buried, a relative said.

Police say Mautaritnaaq was dressed in a light parka and hat. She was only wearing running shoes.

Mautaritnaaq’s body was sent out of Baker Lake for an autopsy, but the cause of death appeared to be hypothermia, said Cpl. Kent McEachern of the Baker Lake RCMP detachment.