WARNING: This story contains graphic details of violence and death.
Louisa Sakiagak speaks of her sister, Alasie Tukkiapik, as if she were still alive.
She’s spent three years trying to make sense of her death.
A mother, sister and daughter, the 41-year-old Inuk woman from Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, braved the move to Montreal in search of opportunity as a young adult.
Tukkiapik was a smiley child, a role model for her sisters and a sibling Sakiagak would follow around to no end.
“Wherever she went, I kind of followed,” said Sakiagak.
Tukkiapik’s name made headlines in 2023, when police found her body at a residence in the Montréal-Nord borough in September.
Francesco Sansalone and his brother Nicodemo Sansalone admitted that they kept her remains on their couch for six months after she died and pleaded guilty to indignity of a corpse last year.
At their sentencing on Feb. 16, both men avoided jail time in a decision strongly condemned by Tukkiapik’s family, who say they feel let down by the legal system.
Considering the absence of information, the family is now questioning the two men’s involvement in Tukkiapik’s death and say her romantic relationship with one of the brothers was unhealthy, coercive and even violent.
When approached with these allegations, both lawyers representing the Sansalone brothers declined to comment to CBC News.
The family maintains that police should have done more.
Laura Aguiar, a spokesperson given authorization to speak on behalf of the family, says the authorities had it wrong from the very start and failed to immediately open a missing persons case when approached by the family.
“The brothers desecrated her body for six months, they left her on a couch to rot,” said Aguiar, who works with the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.
“Alasie’s family has just met failure after failure in this case.… It’s almost like every possible thing that could have gone wrong went wrong.”
Why wasn’t her death investigated as a homicide?
The family still doesn’t know Tukkiapik’s cause of death.
The autopsy, performed Sept. 18, 2023, was “extremely limited” by the conservation of the body, said the coroner’s report, considering Tukkiapik died in February 2023.
The coroner noted there were no traumatic lesions to explain her death and concluded that third-party involvement could be ruled out.
But the report said that because Tukkiapik’s death occurred months prior, the results of toxicology and the autopsy “should be taken with caution.”
The missing pieces of the case raised the alarm for Sakiagak.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “But you don’t leave a dead body laying on the couch for six months and not have anything to hide.”
“I just always go back to why such a light sentence?” she asked.
After pleading guilty, Francesco Sansalone was sentenced to 10 months detention to be served in the community.
At their sentencing, Quebec court judge Pierre Labelle said Francesco’s mental health issues were a contributing factor in the crime.
But some of Tukkiapik’s family maintains that police should have done more, including possibly investigating her death as a homicide.
After analyzing the evidence, the Quebec Crown prosecutor’s office files charges for crimes where it considers there is a reasonable prospect of conviction, based on a series of factors, says a spokesperson for the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales in an emailed statement to CBC.
In this case, the Crown prosecutor’s office said the Montreal police’s investigation was spread out over several months so that they could benefit from a comprehensive investigation.
But it said the judicial process can be “particularly difficult” and acknowledged the impact on the victim’s family.
Aguiar says engaging with the legal system and police felt like being in “handcuffs for the past three years” for the family.
“They were running into a brick wall time after time,” she said.
“I think there is relief that this is closing, this legal proceeding, but there is no feeling of justice.”
Police said Tukkiapik ‘wasn’t in immediate danger’
When Tukkiapik’s family hadn’t heard from her in months, they first turned to social media before going to the police.
It’s a process Sakiagak called “a joke.”
“It took a lot of days for Montreal police to respond to our calls,” said Sakiagak, even when family went to the police in person. “They were asking me questions and said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t sound like she’s in trouble if she hasn’t contacted you.’”
The family was told she “wasn’t in immediate danger,” says Aguiar, who was brought on to help with the family’s case soon after.
“I personally … tried making several calls to the Montreal police to ask for a status update because we were all so confused,” she said.
According to a shared statement of facts, the family showed up at the home of the Sansalone brothers multiple times looking for Tukkiapik — at least once in late August and three other times in early September but were not allowed inside.
Aguiar says she called the police five days in a row — but never heard back. Finally she was told a missing persons report was opened, but only after the family opted to go to the Nunavik police — who then sent the report to Montreal.
The shared statement of facts does not indicate when the family first contacted police. It only said officers were sent to investigate the home on Sept. 18 — nearly a week after the family said they first started reaching out to police, according to Aguiar.
When police checked on the men’s home, the shared statement of facts says Nicodemo told police Tukkiapik was dead and lying on the couch. Upon his arrest, he told officers that he “screwed up” and “should have called” police but that his brother, Francesco, didn’t want him to.
He also told officers Tukkiapik’s body had been there for six months and he feared Tukkiapik’s brother was going to kill him.
In his statement of facts, Nicodemo said a few weeks before the police came, Francesco left the house and never returned — leaving him alone with the corpse. Francesco was only later arrested in late October at the Atwater shopping mall.
In an emailed statement to CBC, the Montreal police refused to comment on the case. It said it must preserve the integrity of any future judicial, ethical or disciplinary process and said that anyone who believes they have been wronged during a police intervention may file a complaint.
Neighbours witnessed shouting, frequent police visits
Aguiar described Tukkiapik’s long-term relationship with Francesco as “a very complex situation of violence.”
“Alasie had hopes for a loving relationship,” she said. “I think like any of us, she wanted to experience love, she wanted to experience acceptance.”
But that’s not what happened, she says. It became routine for her family to go long periods without hearing any news from their loved one. By the time police got involved, the family hadn’t heard from Tukkiapik in six months.
Sakiagak said her sister never talked about her relationship with Francesco — in part because she knew the family would show up if they knew something was wrong, she says.
In late February, a CBC reporter visited the brothers’ house on Désy Avenue where they lived with Tukkiapik. CBC spoke with two people in the neighbourhood who often interacted with Tukkiapik and the brothers, and who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals since they live in the area.
In late July or early August, when court records say Tukkiapik’s body was lying inside the home, one person who lived near the house said they witnessed Tukkiapik’s sister come looking for her and call the police.
It took another month, until mid-September, for police to gain access to the home and find Tukkiapik’s body.
The people who lived nearby said Tukkiapik and the brothers lived in squalor and the police visited the home often.
Both people described the relationship between Francesco and Tukkiapik as unhealthy and witnessed loud and sometimes physical arguments between the two of them outside the home.
Sentencing is ‘really insulting,’ says advocate
The details of the case made Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, angry.
“The sentencing is a joke. I think it’s really insulting,” said Nakuset.
“And we see this time and time again that we don’t get justice.… I know people are pretty much outraged by this.”
Her organization created the Iskweu Project, for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Montreal. A few years ago, staff got involved in Tukkiapik’s case.
The organization has a collaboration with the Montreal police department so that families can come directly to Ishweu workers when a loved one is missing, says Nakuset.
“We have an agreement with the police that you’re going to get back to us in 24 hours,” she said. “You need someone to push the police.”
Sakiagak says she’s lucky the family has so many advocates and supporters.
“I was just so focused in trying to get the justice for my sister,” she said.
“I’ve never gone through any situation like this, and so I made it my point to show up and to learn.… And obviously, it didn’t go in my family’s favour.”
She says she’s put up a good fight and is far from considering her sister’s case closed, as her family looks at possible next steps.
“Just because the justice system is done, it doesn’t mean I’m done,” she said.
If you’re affected by this report, you can look for mental health support through resources in your province or territory.
Crisis support is available for anyone affected by these reports and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people through a national 24-hour hotline at 1-844-413-6649.
Health support services such as mental health counselling, community-based support and cultural services, and some travel costs to see elders and traditional healers are available through the government of Canada. Family members seeking information about a missing or murdered loved one can access Family Information Liaison Units.
