Missing teen unreported

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When a 16-year-old Native boy went missing from his foster home in southern Ontario, little was done until police were notified more than a year later.

But contrary to official procedure, the Smith Falls police weren't told by the foster parents, nor by the local children's aid society. They were tipped off that a runaway had been brutally murdered, beaten to death while seven witnesses looked on. The boy's decomposed body was discovered shortly after the police were told of the year-old incident, on Sept. 22. One man has been charged with first-degree murder, and two with being accessories.

The shocking discovery led to an internal investigation of the Brockville Children's Aid Society, the agency in charge of the dead teen. The investigation hopes to uncover why the runaway went unreported for so long.

The director of the Brockville Children's Aid Society wonders the same thing.

"We are always aware of where our kids are. If the child goes missing, we are aware of it," said Dave Devlin.

Devlin explained that every time a ward runs away, the foster parents notify the agency, which in turn will either notify the police or instruct the foster parents to do so.

"I'm confident that we did everything right and proper in the circumstances," David said. "We care for all our children."

The executive director of Toronto's Native Children and Family Services was surprised procedure wasn't followed. But Ken Richard isn't surprised no action was taken.

"There's no kid that runs more than a Native kid, essentially because their needs aren't being met," said Richard.

And after running away five or six times, the authorities start shrugging their shoulder, particularly if the teens show they can survive on the streets, said Richard.

"Overtime, where they may have been caring initially, the system breaks down. The system burns itself out to the problem they created in the first place," said Richard.

There aren't enough Native foster homes available to provide sensitive environments for kids, he said. So they run.

"There are kids hooking from Alberta here. They could easily be as dead as that boy.