Brennan Ahenakew-Johnstone was 20-years-old when his remains were found on May 10, 2018. (Facebook)

By Ian Gustafson

RCMP officers questioned about response and investigation of Ahenakew-Johnstone’s death

Aug 25, 2021 | 5:00 AM

Family and friends of Brennan Ahenakew-Johnstone were clearly upset during testimony on the second day of a coroner’s inquest into his death. His mother cried when RCMP officers spoke about responding to the scene where his body was found in a burnt car on the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in May of 2018.

Corporal Mark Haider is a 22-year member of the RCMP currently stationed in Shellbrook and supervises a crew of eight officers. On the day in question, Haider and his partner were assisting with a search warrant at a home on the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation – unrelated to the matter at hand. They had two people detained, one in each police cruiser. Haider told the jury, made up of 5 women and one man, that Ahenakew-Johnstone’s mother and father approached he and his fellow officer and told them their son may have been murdered.

His partner told the mother they needed more information and were unable to assist since they had two detainees and they couldn’t be held in the same vehicle. However, later in his testimony, Haider admitted there were options they didn’t consider.

Haider said he, nor his partner had any idea about the burnt vehicle or Ahenakew-Johnstone’s disappearance.

Despite being the supervisor on duty, he didn’t make any notes of the incident because it was the other officer who was speaking to the mother and father and he was preoccupied with the search warrant they had just executed.

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“It was a very fast exchange [with the parents], I would say probably within minutes,” he testified.

Haider only headed back to the scene when a call came across the radio saying there was a body found in a burnt vehicle. When he arrived, he described the scene as chaotic. He saw a body and called for backup before taping off the area and securing the vehicle. Other than his initial involvement on scene, he said he was not involved in the investigation because it was taken over by the major crime’s unit.

When asked if there was anything that could have been done differently to improve the situation, Haider agreed that a radio call notifying other members about a possible homicide situation would have been appropriate immediately Ahenakew-Johnstone’s parents approached them.

“As I said it was a very dynamic… They were very upset and justifiably so,” he said.

Also testifying on Tuesday was Corporal Normand Albert Dupuis who has been a part of the Forensic Identification Section (FIS) with the RCMP since 2005. He summarized his job as a collector of all evidence who documents the scene.

He was notified about the body in the burnt vehicle just after 6:30 on May 10, 2018 but didn’t attend the scene until the next day.

While showing the jury photos of the scene, he explained the driver apparently drove through a barbed wire fence into a field at fast speeds. Dupuis surmised the driver hit a large rock before coming to a stop after hitting several small trees.

“Now how did we end up with a grass fire? Well, I’ve seen it before. I’m a farm boy. You park a hot vehicle over tall dry grass. Even just travelling in the fields it’s not common, but it does happen,” Dupuis said.

“You could definitely see a body inside the car it was in the drivers seat. The drivers seat looked like the body was laying down and that’s normal because things start to melt,” he explained.

He said it was impossible to identify the person by looking at them without doing a dental examination. Fingerprints would have been impossible. There was a bicycle nearby that was not of initial concern but was seized for evidence. When asked if he investigated the scene for foul play, Dupuis said the area was pretty burnt up and the evidence was pointing to it being a motor vehicle accident. When asked if they used metal detectors to scan the area for shell casings or knives, he said based on his examination, it wasn’t warranted.

The inquest continues Wednesday with testimony expected from six different witnesses.

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow