A year after Manitoba border tragedy, family wants answers about who in Canada was responsible

A year to the day after a family of four was found frozen to death in Manitoba near the U.S. border, questions remain about why no one in Canada has been held responsible for the tragedy.

The Jan. 19 anniversary of the day police discovered the bodies of Dharmik Patel, 3; his sister, Vihangi Patel, 11; and their parents, Vaishali Patel, 37, and Jagdish Patel, 39, in a field just north of the border comes days after two men were arrested in India in connection with their deaths.

For Mahendra Patel, Jagdish's brother, that brought some closure. 

But he wants to see more being done to figure out who else was involved in bringing his brother's family to the border — a case authorities have said involved human smuggling — while his family continues to grieve their loss.

"I hope the other people in the U.S. or Canada who are also responsible for this tragedy are arrested," he told a freelancer in India working for CBC News.

"My parents, however, still remember Jagdish's family every day. That is the haunting memory they will continue to live with."

The same day the Patel family's bodies were discovered, a Florida man was charged in the U.S. in connection with the case. Steve Shand was later indicted on two counts of human smuggling.

But a year later, no arrests have been made related to the case in Canada.

Manitoba RCMP spokesperson Robert Cyrenne said while a police official in India suggested this week the Patels travelled to Toronto, then to Vancouver and Manitoba, there's no evidence indicating the family was ever in Vancouver.

The Mounties' investigation to date indicates the Patel family landed in Canada at Toronto's Pearson airport on Jan. 12, 2022, via an international flight from Dubai, Cyrenne said in an email.

RCMP also previously said a private individual then picked up the family.

WATCH | The Patel family arriving at the airport in Toronto:

After that, they spent a few days in the Greater Toronto area in hotels and a private residence, and used a ride-sharing service and personal rides from people they were associated with to get around, Mounties said.

But as of late last year, police wouldn't reveal who they believed sheltered and shuttled the Patels in the Toronto area.