Past two days the ‘hardest to comprehend’ for Mary Papatsie’s family

For the family of Mary Papatsie, a Nunavut woman who had been missing since 2017, hearing from the Ottawa Police Service that investigators had identified her remains brought a sense of closure, but also a profound sense of loss.

“These past two days have been the hardest to comprehend,” said Tommy Papatsie, Mary’s brother, speaking to Nunatsiaq News via Facebook Messenger on Monday.

“We have not decided yet on the funeral as it is too early to decide, we are going through grief right now, and that is where [we] are right now.” 

Papatsie last saw his sister alive in 2012 and said that the family has always wondered what happened to her, what could have gone wrong.

The police department’s homicide unit announced Sunday that the remains unearthed at a construction site on Deschamps Avenue on Sept. 29 are Mary’s, and a spokeswoman confirmed Monday that the case is being treated as a homicide. 

The mother of 10 was 39 when she disappeared in April 2017. In 2019, friends and family held a memorial service to grieve the loss and honour her life. 

By Monday afternoon, a small memorial had sprung up at the construction site where the remains were found, as community members, friends and family stopped to pay their respects.

Tommy said the memorial isn’t surprising given his sister’s caring personality, and the fact that she had a lot of friends in Vanier, a neighbourhood a few kilometres east of Ottawa’s downtown core, at the time of her disappearance.

“She was always smiling and laughing most of the time, and enjoyable to be around,” said Tommy in an interview Tuesday. “It was her personality that attracted people to her.”

In response to the discovery of Mary’s remains, Tungasuvvingat Inuit, an Ottawa social services agency that helps the city’s Inuit, joined with Vanier Community Service Centre to offer free counselling.

“We hope this will provide some of the necessary support for the community during this difficult time,” Tungasuvvingat Inuit wrote on its Facebook page.

Counsellors were available on Tuesday to meet with Inuit community members and will be there again on Wednesday, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Vanier Community Service Centre, located at 290 Dupuis St.

As the Papatsie family continues to process its grief, Tommy said he is thankful to the Vanier community that is rallying around them and surrounding them with care.

“They are supporting  us, they are supporting the family, giving condolences and all and just not leaving us behind. They understand [what] we are going through.”