Rachel Watts · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 08, 2026 1:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 35 minutes ago

WARNING: This story contains distressing details about the death of a child.

Viviane Echaquan-Niquay wept as she arrived at the site of a soccer field in Joliette, Que., when she was greeted by teams beginning the search for her baby sister’s remains.

“I’m happy we’ve made it here,” she said Monday, at the site about 70 kilometres north of Montreal.

Her family has been trying to find answers for over five decades — ever since Laureanna Echaquan never made it home. 

On Monday, sage smoke wafted over one of the four search areas as Jean-Paul Echaquan, the uncle of Laureanna, opened a ceremony alongside his family who travelled from the Atikamekw community of Manawan.

"It’s a special event for us — for the whole family — because it’s been a heavy ordeal for us," he said.

In total, there are four sites in the area that will be searched. Members of the media were invited to the first day of the exhumation, with work possibly continuing over the next three weeks.

A search for answers

In 1973, at just two months old, Laureanna Echaquan was placed, alone, on a plane from Manawan bound for a hospital to treat pneumonia in Joliette, Que., 180 kilometres away. 

Although the family was told the infant was doing well and was discharged from the hospital, the next morning, they were informed Laureanna had died.

Armand Echaquan, her father, arrived in Joliette soon after — hoping to bring his baby back to Manawan for a burial. 

Instead, he was taken to see a Styrofoam coffin, containing the body of a baby he was told was his daughter.

But he said it wasn’t Laureanna. The child weighed much more than their daughter, and appeared to be over 10 months old, not a few months.

Jean-Paul Echaquan, the uncle of baby Laureanna led the ceremony in front of the first search area. He wafted sage smoke over his family members (Rachel Watts/CBC)

A burial happened quickly thereafter, away from the cemetery. 

In the family’s search for answers in the 50-plus years that followed, administrative discrepancies left them with more questions. 

In 2017, Laureanna’s family testified on day one of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls· 

“We’ve lived in sadness for a long time. We want this sadness to end,” said Armand, who has since passed away.

This spring, Justice Chantal Chatelain, from Quebec Superior Court, authorized the exhumation work in four sectors after the request was made by the Atikamekw family. 

The search areas were chosen for the work based on the accounts of Laureanna’s parents, social workers and the work of historical human remains detection dogs. 

In August 2025, a crew passed a georadar over the area they believed could hold the remains of the baby — reportedly detecting anomalies. 

Baby shoes and a candle were laid on a table in front of the exhumation site. (Rachel Watts/CBC)

Hope for the family

Jean-Paul Echaquan said Monday this search marks a part of his family’s healing. He was about 10 years old and attending residential school when his niece Laureanna died. He says he never officially met her.

He was at the site to support his nieces, the daughters of his late brother Armand Echaquan — who also fought for answers in the years that followed his daughter’s death. 

Olivia Malenfant, the family's lawyer, said that while stressful, it was a relief to finally do the exhumation work.

"There is a lot of anticipation of what will come next and hope that they will find their loved one, but we don't know until we have a positive identification," he said.

It’s only the fifth exhumation authorized by Quebec’s Superior Court, according to Awacak. 

The Indigenous-led organization was among those that pushed for the adoption of Quebec's Bill 79.

Since it came into effect in 2021, the law allows Indigenous families to access the medical records of their loved ones who went missing or who died in health-care facilities in Quebec before the end of 1992. 

According to a recent government report, 129 Indigenous families have started the process of searching for 221 missing children.

In 2025, Quebec Superior Court authorized the first exhumations of two Innu babies. In 2024, the court authorized the work to find the body of a Cree child who attended a Quebec residential school and died in 1966.