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This article was published 25/9/2014 (2187 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chief Devon Clunis said this morning an internal investigation is underway after two Winnipeg police officers had contact with Tina Fontaine, the girl reported missing before her body was pulled from the Red River last month.

The two officers had contact with 15-year-old Fontaine on Aug. 8. A week later, her body was discovered. She had been reported missing July 31.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Police Chief Clunis (right) along with Superintendent Danny Smyth leave the news conference.

Clunis said he wasn't made aware of the police contact with Tina Fontaine until Sept. 3.

The two officers involved – a recruit and a field training officer - have been assigned to "non-operational duties," Clunis said. The internal investigation is "advancing " said Supt. Danny Smyth with criminal investigations. He declined to release any details of the matter while it is under investigation.

Fontaine's great aunt said she was devastated by the new information.

"It just shows that they didn’t really care ," said Thelma Favel, who was like a mother to the teen originally from Sagkeeng First Nation. She said she was contacted by Winnipeg police Wednesday to let her know about her niece having contact with the two police officers.

"If they ran her name through the system they must have know she was missing," said Favel. "But they just let her go."

"I don’t understand," said Favel, who said after Tina was picked up by police on Aug. 8 in a car with an impaired driver and other people, they were all taken into custody. Her niece was released and later found passed out in a back lane off Ellice Avenue. Favel said someone in the area saw her and called an ambulance.

"She was taken to the Children’s Hospital and kept there to make sure she was okay," said Favel who later received an ambulance bill in the mail for $500.

She said Tina was kept under observation for four hours and an on-call Child and Family Services was called to pick her up. "He or she wasn’t sure where she was supposed to take Tina." She ended up being taken back to her foster care placement in Winnipeg but took off again. Her body was pulled from the Red River the following week.

"She had so much contact with so many agencies – paramedics, Children’s Hospital, CFS," but no one made sure she was safe, said Favel. "It’s devastating."

Favel said the system failed Tina long before her death. The homicide death of her father sent Tina into a downward spiral. Her great-aunt who was raising her struggled to help the girl before Tina was placed in care.

"So many doors were slammed in my face when I called for help for Tina," she said.

Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said today she was unaware police had contact with Fontaine in the week before her body was recovered from the Red River.

Irvin-Ross said an internal investigation into Fontaine’s contact with child-welfare officials is ongoing. The Office of the Children's Advocate is also investigating. The Children’s Advocate investigates all child deaths in the province's child welfare system.

Irvin-Ross said most immediately the focus is on finding Fontaine’s killer.

"The police need to do their work, and so I’m not able to talk about the specifics of the case, " she said. "I have confidence in the Winnipeg Police Service. They’re professionals and they’re going to do the work that they need to do to find the killer."

Irvin-Ross said a protocol is in place to locate high-risk youth who are in care and replace them within the child-welfare system.

However, she said could not comment on whether that protocol failed in Fontaine’s case.

"That will part of the investigation," she said. "We’ll be looking at the timelines, the procedures and the protocol and evaluating and assessing what services were provided to Tina."