Police, grieving families in Baker Lake seek information

Police and people in Baker Lake want to see an arrest in the case of two graves which were tampered with earlier this summer in the community’s cemetery. (FILE PHOTO)

No one in Baker Lake has come forward yet with information which could help RCMP in Baker Lake nab the individual or individuals who dug up two graves in the community’s cemetery on the nights of June 5 and 6.

“The Baker Lake RCMP and the grieved families are seeking public assistance,” said an Aug. 25 media release from the RCMP. “The matter is being treated seriously.”

Relatives of the deceased have offered a $10,000 reward for any information on the crime, which has shocked people in the community, leaving them worried about the safety of their children and hoping that police will make an arrest soon.

“There’s nothing [new] at this time to report,” said RCMP Staff Sergeant Steve Wright of the Iqaluit RCMP detachment on Aug. 27, although he urged members of the public to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or Baker Lake’s RCMP detachment at 867-973-0123 with any relevant information.

The two graves recently disturbed in the Baker Lake cemetery are not the first ones to have been found tampered with there, police said in earlier reports.

According to police remarks quoted in the Aug. 18 edition of the Kivalliq News, a female body had been found in the most recent incident had its pants pulled down.

But Wright did not want to confirm anything about the nature of the disturbance.

“It’s a very sensitive,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

DNA samples taken from the body have been sent to a crime lab for analysis. The results should provide information that will allow police to move forward on making an arrest in the case.