Search for teen suspended after body found

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This article was published 30/05/2023 (330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The search for a missing Fort Richmond teen was suspended after his family said police had found a body.

Winnipeg police contacted Sethumi Gunathilaka Wednesday morning to notify her that a body had been found, and it may be that of her brother Inuka Gunathilaka, she told the Free Press.

Inuka, 15, has been missing since May 24.

The family is awaiting forensic identification of the body and has suspended the search, she said.

The Winnipeg Police Service would not confirm whether a body had been found.

“We cannot (confirm this). We’re just talking with the missing person’s unit, so we don’t have any further information to provide,” WPS Const. Claude Chancy said.

Inuka was last seen at 8 a.m. as he left home for school.

Footage from surveillance cameras shows him arriving at Fort Richmond Collegiate 10 minutes later. He left his school supplies in the library and walked out of the school toward Pembina Highway,

Video later shows him walking northbound near University Crescent.

“Everybody is shocked. Everybody involved in this was determined to find him,” said Udaya Annakkage, who helped organize the search.

Annakkage said he was present when police delivered the news to the family.

“I arrived half-way through. I heard first-hand from the police,” he said by phone.

Annakkage said the body was found along the Red River, near a business in the Crescent Park neighbourhood.

“Until we get a firm, official statement from police, we don’t know if this is Inuka. This is difficult for us too because our community needs closure, and you can’t get closure until you hear confirmation,” he said.

The Gunathilakas are members of the close-knit Sri Lankan community in Winnipeg. Annakkage taught both Sethumi and Inuka at Sunday school, he said.

“(Inuka) is a very kind, but very quiet kid,” he said.

The search for the teen, which involved hundreds of local Sri Lankans, began last week and continued into Tuesday, Annakkage said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca