Exhumation Underway for Atikamekw Infant Missing Since 1973
A poignant search is underway in Joliette, Quebec, as teams begin exhumation efforts to locate the remains of Laureanna Echaquan, an Atikamekw infant who disappeared over 50 years ago. The infant was sent to a hospital in Joliette for pneumonia treatment in 1973 and never returned home to her family in the community of Manawan.
Viviane Echaquan-Niquay, Laureanna’s sister, was present at the soccer field site, a designated search area approximately 70 kilometers north of Montreal, expressing a sense of hope. “I’m happy we’ve made it here,” she stated on Monday. Her family has been seeking answers for more than five decades.
A Family’s Enduring Quest for Truth
The search commenced with a traditional ceremony. Jean-Paul Echaquan, Laureanna’s uncle, led a prayer alongside family members who traveled from Manawan. In 1973, Laureanna, just two months old, was flown from Manawan to a hospital in Joliette, a distance of 180 kilometers, to receive care for pneumonia. Despite assurances that the infant was recovering and had been discharged, the family was informed the following morning that Laureanna had died.
Armand Echaquan, Laureanna’s father, traveled to Joliette with the intention of bringing his daughter home for a burial. However, he was presented with a Styrofoam coffin containing a baby’s body, which he was told was his daughter. Armand maintained that the infant in the coffin was not Laureanna, citing a significant difference in weight and apparent age, suggesting the child was over 10 months old, not a few months as Laureanna would have been. A hasty burial followed, away from the established cemetery.
Administrative Hurdles and a Historic Inquiry
In the intervening 50 years, the family encountered numerous administrative discrepancies that deepened their questions. In 2017, Laureanna’s family shared their story during the initial phase of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Armand Echaquan, who has since passed away, expressed the family’s long-held pain, stating, “We’ve lived in sadness for a long time. We want this sadness to end.”
Court-Authorized Search and Legal Advancements
This spring, Justice Chantal Chatelain of the Quebec Superior Court authorized the exhumation work across four sectors, following a formal request from the Atikamekw family. The chosen areas were determined based on the testimonies of Laureanna’s parents, insights from social workers, and the findings of historical human remains detection dogs. In August 2025, preliminary scans using georadar over a suspected area reportedly detected anomalies, further fueling the ongoing search.
Jean-Paul Echaquan views this search as a crucial step in his family’s healing process. He was attending residential school, around 10 years old, when his niece passed away and never officially met her. His presence at the site is to support his nieces, the daughters of his late brother Armand, who tirelessly sought answers throughout the years following his daughter’s death.
New Legislation Aids Indigenous Families
This exhumation marks only the fifth instance authorized by Quebec’s Superior Court. The Indigenous-led organization Awacak was instrumental in advocating for Quebec’s Bill 79, which came into effect in 2021. This legislation grants Indigenous families access to the medical records of loved ones who went missing or died in Quebec health-care facilities before the end of 1992.
Recent government figures indicate that 129 Indigenous families have initiated the process of searching for 221 missing children. In 2025, the Quebec Superior Court authorized the first exhumations for two Innu babies. Previously, in 2024, the court approved a search for the remains of a Cree child who died in 1966 after attending a Quebec residential school.
(Note: This story contains distressing details regarding the death of a child.)
