Nunavut RCMP treating Iqaluit family deaths as homicides

RCMP Sgt. Jimmy Akavak, right, speaks to reporters in Iqaluit June 9 as Insp. Frank Gallagher looks on. Police released the names of the four people killed June 7: Sylvain Degrasse, 44; Vivian Sula Enuaraq, 29; Alexandra Degrasse, 7; and Aliyah Degrasse, 2. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Police have released the names of the four people who died June 7 in a tragedy that has left the Nunavut capital in a state of shock and mourning.

Dead are Sylvain Degrasse, 44; Vivian Sula Enuaraq, 29; Alexandra Degrasse, 7; and Aliyah Degrasse, 2.

Degrasse and Enuaraq were in a common-law relationship and the two girls were their children, said RCMP Sgt. Jimmy Akavak.

His voice shook as he read the names of the two young victims at a news conference in Iqaluit June 9.

“It’s (been) a sad couple of days here,” he said. “It’s shocking to everyone.”

Police were called to Iqaluit’s cemetery June 7 where they found the body of a man lying on a grave and clutching a shotgun.

Degrasse appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The grave site was that of his late sister, Suzanne Apak Degrasse, who died in 2007.

The bodies of the women and the two young girls were later found inside house 2534 in Iqaluit’s Tundra Valley neighbourhood.

Investigators initially cordoned off two separate areas at the cemetery, one in the graveyard and one nearby, where a pickup truck and shack were blocked off with police tape.

Police tape from those locations was gone June 9.

There was still a police cordon around house 2534 as of mid-day June 9.

Police say they’re still trying to piece together what happened and are confirming few details about the case. Akavak couldn’t say where inside the house the bodies were found.

Akavak did confirm police believe all four deaths are connected.

But it’s too early to release causes of death, or the amount of time between the deaths of Degrasse, Enuaraq and the two girls.

“While the circumstances of their deaths are being treated as a homicide investigation, the RCMP are not currently searching for any suspects,” Akavak said.

He said two forensic investigators from the RCMP detachment in Winnipeg are in Iqaluit assisting the investigation.

Police are still asking the public to come forward with any information they might have

Family members have been notified and many are flying into Iqaluit. Akavak said police notified family members from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet, as well as outside the country.

Akavak said bodies of the dead were to flown to Ottawa June 9 or 10 for autopsies, which could take “a week to 10 days.”

On June 9 there was still a police cordon around house 2534 in Iqaluit June 7, where police found the bodies of a woman and two children. Police say they’re still trying to piece together what happened and are confirming few details about the case. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)