Family, friends scour river valley in search of 14-year-old Samuel Bird

Edmonton Journal

2 days ago

An anguished and angry Alanna Bird was joined by family, friends and supporters in a search for her son, Samuel, who has been missing since June 1.
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A search team was out in the rain in the river valley near Victoria Park Saturday, looking for any trace of the 14-year-old. The family, Indigenous leaders and politicians expressed frustration with the Edmonton Police Service's response to the missing persons report filed by the Bird family.
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'I won't even be able to kiss him now,' said Alanna, who was joined by Samuel's father, Justin Bird, and the boy's paternal grandmother, Geri Potts. 'I don't know how I'm going to find him. Is he going to be in pieces?'
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The teen was supposed to return to his West Edmonton home on June 1. The family said he was struggling with mental-health issues and was lovesick, and had fallen in with a group of friends they didn't trust. They said friends who used to call on Samuel regularly stopped coming by or sending messages after the teen's disappearance. The family has stated that social-media videos are circulating which look to show Samuel being beaten.
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'The reason we're doing this search is that we waited a very long time for information to come, to verify that Sam is either here with us or gone to the spirit world,' said Potts.
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'We were directed to start looking in the water,' said Potts. 'Today is a mixed blessing. As we're sitting here, it's raining outside. It's cleansing the ground and preparing us for this search. It could be a long journey before we find him. It could take us a long time, but we're not giving up.'
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Potts said she's been out and about regularly, looking for Samuel or his friends, from the West Edmonton Mall to the river valley.
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Alanna remains frustrated with the police.
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'It was two days after he didn't come home, he wasn't messaging, so I called the police,' she said. 'They ended up having someone dispatched and coming by.'
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She said she was told by police that Samuel was likely 'hanging with friends' and would be home sooner or later.
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'But the thing was, I would see every day,' said Alanna. 'He always let me know where he was. I don't know how much more I can express that. He knew I always worried about him. I didn't like him to touch alcohol… And I felt something was wrong the first couple of days.'