An Inuk woman reported missing earlier this year was finally found in the home of two Montrealers who allegedly kept the body on their living room sofa for six months, causing consternation at an organization dedicated to defending Indigenous women.
“It’s despicable, it’s dehumanizing, not even animals do that… She was a woman who was loved by her family, her brother, her sisters… Nobody deserves this,” Laura told the Journal Aguiar, coordinator of the Iskweu Project she aimed at eliminating the phenomenon of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Alasie Tukkiapik, a 41-year-old native of Kangiqsujuaq in Nunavik, had moved to Montreal in hopes of a fresh start. But once she got there she was isolated and disappeared without a trace.
Alasie Tukkiapik, a 41-year-old Kangiqsujuaq native, was reported missing in Montreal. Six months later she was found in the home of two men who had kept the body on their sofa. Francesco and Nicodemo Sansalone are accused of insulting a corpse. Photo from website www.aboriginalalert.ca courtesy of www.aboriginalalert.ca
In a state of mummification
A missing persons report was filed in the spring, but to no avail. At the same time, his brother had carried out investigations which, according to our information, had led him to suspect Francesco and Nicodemo Sansalone, two brothers in their sixties who lived in Montreal North.
Alarmed, the police went to their home in mid-September to ask them if they knew anything.
“Yes, she is dead, she is in the living room,” one of the residents would have replied and even asked the patrol officers to enter the property.
There the agents made the macabre discovery. Ms Tukkiapik’s mummified body had been placed on the sofa and had lain there for six months, causing a foul smell in the apartment.
One of the suspects then explained that she had died “on the floor” and that they had decided to put her on the sofa. And if he had not called the police, it would have been out of fear that someone close to the deceased would attack him.
The wanted report regarding Alasie Tukkiapik. Courtesy of www.aboriginalalert.ca
Mental health
The two Sansalone brothers were quickly handcuffed. They were both charged with indignity to a corpse, and Francesco Sansalone was also charged with “breach of a duty prescribed by law in connection with the burial of Ms. Tukkiapik.”
However, after more than a month in preventive detention, they were released on bail last week. The fact that they have to see a doctor and take all prescribed medications suggests that they may have psychological problems.
But for Ms. Aguiar of the Iskweu Project, this case once again highlights the need to help Indigenous women who are too often left to fend for themselves in Montreal.
“There are a lot of them coming and no one is giving them chances. We must ensure that they are neither isolated nor abandoned. And above all, we must not trivialize this violence,” she concluded, saying she hopes the world remembers Ms Tukkiapik as a woman who was loved, and not just the one whose decomposing body was found in a living room.
–With Camille Payant
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