A Pinaymootang First Nation resident says RCMP dismissed his family’s concerns and didn’t check for the body of an unaccounted loved one after that person’s home was gutted in a fire.

Emergency crews were called on Feb. 7 to the community, just off Highway 6 about 200 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

On the night of the fire, relatives tried to call the man’s cell phone without any success in reaching him. So Anderson’s family told an RCMP officer standing outside the home they believed the man was possibly still inside.

(Two days later) he and his brother decided to look through the rubble themselves. Anderson went along the east side of the home while his brother searched the west.

“Right where we met … I noticed the bones sticking out of the ashes,” he said.