Fort Qu’Appelle RCMP are still looking for information about what led to the killing of a 21 year old Burns Lake resident in Fort Qu’Appelle on Feb. 19, 2011.
According to Fort Qu’Appelle RCMP, Kyle Daniels was a current resident of the small town of approximately 2,000 people, located in the Qu’Appelle Valley in southern Saskatchewan. On his Facebook page however, Daniels identified himself as being a resident of Burns Lake and a student of Lakes District Secondary School class of 2009.
At approximately 4 a.m. on Feb. 19, 2011 RCMP officers were called out to Craigleith Avenue, in Fort Qu’Appelle to investigate a report of an injured man.
Once on the scene officers attempted revive Daniels by administering CPR, but were unsuccessful in their attempts.
Sgt. Paul Dawson, from Saskatchewan RCMP’s F Division said to Lakes District News, that RCMP are continuing with the investigation into the homicide of Daniels.
Sgt. Dawson said, “70 plus interviews have been conducted and police will continue to interview people and follow up on information and tips that have been generated from the public.”
He also requested that anyone with information on the homicide or Daniels movements that night should come forward to their local RCMP detachment or call Crime Stoppers on 1800-222-8477.
“No one has been arrested or charged in this offence,” he added.
At the time of the incident Daniels was reported to be wearing a black winter jacket with a beige, fur lined hood, black pants and white runners.
One of Daniels last posts on his Facebook page was made on Nov. 28, 2010 in which he says, “B day dinner cancelled just going Sask’ soon as I can.”
Many of the 168 friends and family on the Facebook page titled, ‘In memory of Kyle Daniels’ that has recently been created in honour of Daniels, are from Burns Lake and all express their grief and disbelief over the loss of thier friend.
A family member said to Lakes District News that the news of Daniels homicide has been tough for the family to deal with.
“We don’t have closure and I think if we could get some closure it would take some of the pain and stress away. We just don’t know what happened,” the family member said.
They went on to say that the family has been in regular communication with the Fort Qu’Appelle RCMP detachment, who have told them the investigation is still continuing.
The family member said that Daniels had planned to leave Fort Qu’Appelle the very next day and travel to Edmonton to help a friend move, then return to Burns Lake.
“He was going to surprise his mother,” the family member said.
They went on to say, “We don’t know much about what happened. Kyle went out to the bar that night to have a goodbye drink with his brother [who lives in Fort QuAppelle with Kyle’s father]. We know they left the bar at 2:30 a.m. and that Kyle’s body was found at 3:30 a.m. ….. there is an hour there that is unaccounted for,” the family member said.
The family member said that Daniels had been in Fort Q’Appelle for the last month and a half visiting his father and just clearing his head. “Kyle was a good boy, he wasn’t an angel, but he wasn’t a devil either and he had issues he was dealing with. He had worked to overcome a lot of things. He was missing two fingers, but he drummed with the Bear Lake drum group, he loved to pow wow … he loved that life. Lloyd Abraham Sr. worked hard to keep the group [drummers] on the right path and I know that what happened to Kyle is breaking his heart,” the family member said.
There have been reports that Daniels died from multiple stab wounds and that a knife that is thought to be the murder weapon was later found two blocks away from the scene, however Fort Qu’Appelle RCMP neither confirmed or denied the reports.
Sgt. Dawson said to Lakes District News, “We will not confirm or deny any information that is provided by a third party. This is a serious homicide investigation and we don’t discuss potential evidence or ongoing investigative details that may one day be before the courts.”
“We want to know what is happened and when they find out the RCMP said that we will be the first to know,” the family member said.
A memorial service was held for Daniels in Burns Lake on Feb. 27, and his burial was held the next day.
“The memorial was very powerful, he had a lot of friends and the Bear Lake drum group performed three songs that went for over half an hour …… We want to let the kids know not to be angry, there have been two deaths in the community recently [Chassidy Charlie and Daniels] and the kids need to heal. We want the kids to stop drinking and we don’t want anyone else to get hurt or to try and take matters into their own hands ….. two young deaths is a lot for the community,” the family member said.
“He was 21 years old, his life was just starting, we just need closure, we need to know what happened. People are very angry right now,” the family member added.
