Police working to identify eight people found in Akwesasne marsh

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Search efforts are continuing Saturday to locate a missing Akwesasne man in a sector of marshland where the bodies of eight migrants were found on Thursday and Friday.

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Casey Oakes, 30, was last seen Wednesday night aboard a boat that was found Thursday near the bodies. Police forces have yet to establish a direct link between those deaths and the missing man.

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The Akwesasne Mohawk Police says it is working with Immigration Canada and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify the eight people who were pulled out of the St.

Lawrence River. Akwesasne straddles the Canada-U.S. border, with parts of its territory in Quebec, Ontario and New York. "People are sad.

They hope that anyone involved in this tragedy will be found," Val Gray, the owner of the Three Feathers internet cafe in Akwesasne, told La Presse Canadienne. Police found the bodies of five adults and one infant in the marshland on Friday. Another infant and an adult woman were located on Friday.

One of the children was a Canadian citizen. The deceased are believed to be of Indian and Romanian descent.

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Gray said she did not know Casey Oakes but her father, who is a member of the community, is one of his clients. The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne gave her the mission to feed all the volunteers taking part in the search effort.

She said she served sandwiches throughout the last two days and a dinner on Friday. "The community supports each other. Each one supports the other in one way or another, whether it's the volunteers who are searching the area or businesses making donations to the volunteers.

That's our community. No matter what, everyone is ready to help," she said. Some volunteers gathered at the volunteer fire station as police blocked access to the marina.

Authorities say Akwesasne's geography makes it popular with smugglers.

Police have made 48 stops involving 80 people trying to illegally enter the U.S. since January.

  1. An air boat from the Akwesasne fire service joins the search for drowning victims in a marsh in Akwesasne on Friday.

    New U.S.-Canada border deal partly to blame for Akwesasne tragedy, asylum groups say

    [1]
  2. Searchers found the bodies Thursday in a marsh in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, near the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York state.

    Eight dead in Akwesasne were trying to cross border, police say

    [2]

References

  1. ^ New U.S.-Canada border deal partly to blame for Akwesasne tragedy, asylum groups say (montrealgazette.com)
  2. ^ Eight dead in Akwesasne were trying to cross border, police say (montrealgazette.com)