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Supt. Smyth spoke at a news conference set up to respond to a CTV report that said Ms. Fontaine was a passenger in a vehicle along with a man who was arrested on suspicion of being impaired.

The incident occurred nine days before Ms. Fontaine’s body was found in a bag in the Red River.

Police said their investigation into the teen’s death was still very much active, although no arrests have been made.

Ms. Fontaine had spent much of her life with her great-aunt, Thelma Favel, on the Sagkeeng First Nation, 75 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. She had a history of running away and went to Winnipeg about a month before her death to visit her biological mother.

Ms. Favel had asked a child welfare agency for help with Ms. Fontaine and said Thursday social workers failed her. The girl was supposed to be in a group home or foster home, but had run away and had not been seen for more than a week.

Ms. Favel said social workers have told her that on the night of Aug. 8 — which would be a few hours after police came across Ms. Fontaine — the girl had passed out in an alley downtown and paramedics took her to a nearby hospital.

“They kept her there for about three or four hours until she sobered up a little bit and then [social workers] picked her up from the hospital.”

That appears to have been the last time she was seen alive. Ms. Fontaine managed to run away again shortly after leaving the hospital, Ms. Favel said.

Child and Family Services has launched an internal investigation into the case as well. The Manitoba government and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority would not confirm or deny Ms. Favel’s statements, citing privacy laws and the police investigation.