Suspicious deaths still unsolved

Police are still waiting on DNA testing results to help them solve the killing of Rhoda Maghagak, found dead in her home five months ago in Cambridge Bay.

Const. Chris Coles, the RCMP’s media relations officer in Nunavut, said the delay comes from their forensic labs’ priority system, which puts national security and multiple homicide cases ahead of others.

Coles said that the delay would be the same whether the samples were coming from Nunavut, or any other part of the country.

“Unfortunately, good police work takes time,” Coles said. “We are not living in a TV world.”

Cambridge Bay residents, including local MLA Keith Peterson, have complained about the length of the investigation of the 49-year-old woman’s death, which occurred around March 12.

Peterson has told police he’s concerned that a murderer may be still at large in the community.

Police are also still working on Nunavut’s first homicide of the year: Pee Korgak was fatally assaulted on Jan. 9 in his home in building 305, near the cemetery in Iqaluit.

Police recently received autopsy results from the South, but refused to release further details on the 40-year-old’s death, and no arrests have been made.

Anyone with information can phone 979-0123, and ask for the investigating officer.