Stephanie Nattaway talks to the picture she has of her daughter Tammy within the hallway of her residence in Backyard Hill First Nation, urging her to come back residence or give a clue about the place she is.
“I all the time say ‘Strive tougher. Maintain us shut and in desires.’ I ask and pray lots,” she stated.
“I do know it has been too lengthy. She would’ve been residence. I do know she would’ve been residence.”
It has been 4 years since Tammy Nattaway, who was 16 on the time, disappeared from the Island Lake area, made up of 4 fly-in communities in northeastern Manitoba.
Tammy spent her time between two First Nations — Backyard Hill, the place she lived in foster care, and neighbouring Wasagamack — the place her boyfriend and prolonged household dwell.
Manitoba RCMP consider she was final seen in Backyard Hill in mid-July of 2020, however say it is attainable she went to Wasagamack.
Searchers say it is uncommon that she went lacking with out a hint, save for a chunk of clothes, and regardless of exhaustive community-led efforts to search out her that have not let up. Tammy by no means strayed removed from residence, in keeping with her mom, and seemed out for her youthful siblings.
“We by no means had a wake or funeral for her. We have not given up looking out but. Cannot say goodbye. Can not seem to develop,” stated Stephanie.
Backyard Hill First Nation is providing a $5,000 reward to anybody with data that results in her being discovered.
Lots of of searchers
For the previous 4 years, a whole bunch of searchers from throughout Island Lake have scoured each communities — by air, land and water — on the lookout for a hint of Tammy, discovering solely her sweater two years after she disappeared.
Manitoba RCMP say previous to her disappearance, Tammy offered her telephone, which they recovered. In a press release, they stated “in depth investigational steps into Tammy’s social media exercise and on-line exercise have been taken main as much as her disappearance.”
RCMP say foul play could also be concerned in Tammy’s disappearance. RCMP’s main crime providers is main the investigation.
Tammy was the eldest of 9 siblings however had been in foster care in Backyard Hill First Nation. She wasn’t reported lacking to police till July 31, greater than per week after she was final reportedly seen.
“I assumed she was OK as a result of she was beneath CFS.… They stated she was in good fingers. However I do not know why they waited two weeks,” stated Stephanie.
Island Lake First Nations Household Providers has not returned repeated requests for remark.
Kurt Mason, who’s with Backyard Hill’s search and rescue staff, stated they’ve coated “each inch” of the neighborhood as properly, and the searches proceed each summer season till freeze-up.
“We dove, we dragged, we used underwater sonars. We used the whole lot. No clue. Nothing,” stated Mason.
“Tammy went out” remains to be scrawled in black marker on the entrance door of her grandmother’s home in Wasagamack First Nation.
Lena Harper gazes out her window each night time, hoping to see her granddaughter stroll up the highway once more.
“I want she might simply say, ‘Kokum, I am residence’,” she stated.
The final time Lena noticed Tammy was in Could 2020, earlier than Lena needed to go away the neighborhood for medical causes.
She stated she needed Tammy to stick with household throughout that point, however she was cussed and needed to be along with her boyfriend.
“She was all the time at her boyfriend’s,” she stated.
Tammy’s boyfriend lived together with his grandfather Wallace Harper — who is not instantly associated to Lena Harper — in Wasagamack First Nation.
“I did not need her there. Wallace saved going again to select her up.” stated Lena.
Tammy’s boyfriend’s uncle stated he and Tammy had spent the day at his home on July 19, 2020, in keeping with Lena.
When neighborhood members started looking for her and speaking about her disappearance, nobody ever got here ahead to say they’d taxied Tammy again to Backyard Hill First Nation, Lena stated.
“We really feel her right here. I really feel her right here,” she stated.
Rumours in each communities run rampant about what might have occurred to Tammy, however Lena believes her granddaughter was the sufferer of foul play.
“We forgive them. We forgive them. However we would like Tammy again. We wish to lay her to relaxation,” she stated.
Home in Wasagamack
Wallace Harper stated from time to time, he used to select Tammy up and convey her to his home in Wasagamack First Nation, with permission from her foster residence in Backyard Hill. He stated Tammy needed to be along with her boyfriend, his 18-year-old grandson who lived with him, and he or she usually requested him if she might stick with them.
Wallace stated he cannot bear in mind the precise date, however he final noticed Tammy “two or three nights” earlier than she went lacking, when he stated CFS got here to select her up from his home.
“I do not know something that occurred to her. All I do know is she was picked up and that was the final time I seen her,” he stated.
He stated when he spoke to his grandson about Tammy’s disappearance, “He simply saved saying ‘I do not know.'” He stated they each had been interviewed by RCMP.
“I am simply fearful about her, I am fearful about the place she is. I do know what it is prefer to have someone lacking and never being discovered,” he stated, including his earlier spouse’s father had disappeared years earlier than.
He stated he feels Tammy’s household blames her disappearance on him as a result of she stayed with him, including the rumours have virtually “ruined his life.”
“I can forgive them too. All I do know is Tammy is lacking. What occurred to her, I do not know.”
Tammy’s mom says she will’t transfer on. She does not just like the sight of improvement in both neighborhood, as she worries it could disturb a spot her daughter is.
“I get up in the midst of the night time, typically in a panic, considering I’ve to go look over there, I’ve to look there,” stated Stephanie.
“I do not know if she’s alive or if someone’s holding her captive. Too many ideas undergo my thoughts. What if a bear ate her, what if she received misplaced, or damage and no one heard her screaming?”
She describes her eldest daughter as a “very quiet woman” who preferred to learn and will “loosen up your temper at any time.”
“She had a smooth voice,” stated Stephanie. “She was very comfortable. She would carry life to all people.”
She stated she had Tammy at a younger age and struggled to lift her kids after her companion, who received caught up with alcohol, left them for a number of years. Regardless of Tammy being in foster care, Stephanie all the time maintained an in depth bond along with her, although the circumstances had been arduous.
“I used to be beneath no authority to inform her the place to go or the place to be, I could not simply take her. I did not have a house.”
Manitoba RCMP stated officers have spoken with greater than 150 folks, and have adopted up on each tip obtained. Their investigation stays energetic and ongoing.
“We’re ready for them [RCMP]. It would be good to inform us the place to look … not less than,” stated search staff member Kurt Mason.
“Not the names. Do not inform us who did it, who’s being investigated. Inform us the place to look. Are we shut?”
Mason was concerned within the seek for 11-year-old Teresa Robsinson when she disappeared in Backyard Hill in Could 2015, and within the discovery of her stays in a wooded space.
A youth finally got here ahead and pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide in her dying.
Mason believes somebody in Island Lake is aware of one thing about what occurred to Tammy.
“Inform us. Tell us what occurred. So the mother and father can relaxation. So the neighborhood can relaxation,” he stated.
Birthday celebration
Each June 5, her household comes collectively at “floor zero,” the final concrete sighting in Backyard Hill, to have a good time her birthday with a barbecue, cake and prayer.
They launched lanterns into the sky and even had a drone present that shone her picture within the sky so it may very well be seen by each communities.
“She is going to by no means be forgotten, and we have not stopped wanting as we proceed to seek for her,” stated her father, Bradley Nattaway, who had recovered from his alcoholism and returned to the neighborhood and Stephanie Nattaway.
“We ask that the communities proceed to wish for her return because the household and the neighborhood want closure,” he stated.
“Would not matter who did it, who damage her or who’s hiding her,” stated Stephanie. “Simply carry her residence. We simply wish to put her to relaxation. That is all we would like.”
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