Saskatoon police have confirmed they received a tip regarding the whereabouts of a 16-year-old girl accused of killing infant Nikosis Jace Cantre a day before his death.
News Talk Radio has learned Andrea Bird, a cousin of the Cantre’s mother, called police at 3:33 p.m. on July 2. In that call she told police a member of her family was with the accused girl.
A screenshot of Bird’s phone records indicates a two-minute call.
“I called the police and let them know that my sister and her friend found a teen wandering at 5:30 in the morning,” Bird said.
“I told the police (the accused’s) name…and I told them what my sister told me when she returned to her house.”
Bird said she told the officer the girl had escaped from Kilburn Hall Youth Centre, an open-custody facility.
Saskatoon police were already aware of the teen being unlawfully at-large. Spokesperson Alyson Edwards confirmed they received a call from the facility shortly after the girl ran away at 12:45 a.m. July 2.
At that point, information about the girl – including a name and description of what she looked like – was relayed to police cruisers around the city.
Edwards said a tip came in around 3 a.m. July 2 that the girl was at a home in the 200 block of Avenue N North. When officers arrived, they found no one at the residence.
Edwards also confirmed the call from Andrea Bird and said she heard the recording.
“The call taker received from her (Bird), two possible locations where the person who was unlawfully at large might be,” Edwards said.
“One of them was on 8th Street (Bird’s sister’s home), the other was on Waterloo Crescent.”
Edwards said the caller then asked if Bird’s relative, who was allegedly with the accused girl at the time, had a phone where she could be reached. Bird told police and News Talk Radio her sister does not have a phone, or way to be reached.
At that point, Edwards said, the call taker asked Bird to confirm when the girl would be at a particular location.
“Ms. Bird, at that time when she was phoning us, wasn’t at either of those locations, so the call taker asked her to let us know when she arrived at either address and when she could confirm the person who was unlawfully at large was also there, and then we would send a car right away,” she said.
Edwards said it was “too hit and miss” to send a car to either area at that time, since Bird told them the girls might be leaving one location to return to the other.
She added no further phone calls were received from Bird, or any members of the family, following the initial tip.
Bird told 650 CKOM she did see the girl again, while at her sister’s home on 8th Street. She said she didn’t call police because she felt the call taker wasn’t taking the matter seriously.
Edwards said that based on the recording, the call taker asked the required questions.
Saskatoon police are looking into whether all procedures were followed correctly in the handling of the call.