Family of Sask. Indigenous boy who disappeared at 15 years old still seeking answers 50 years later

It's been more than 50 years since Lorna Kay last saw her brother Kenneth, but that moment is forever etched in her memory.

It was early May 1972, Treaty Day on the Kawacatoose First Nation about 115 kilometres north of Regina. Fifteen-year-old Kenneth was at the old schoolhouse, waiting along with other band members to get their $5 federal treaty payments.

"I was at the back of [another] brother's truck," Lorna says. "He was taking us into town and I remember [Kenneth] standing with one leg up against a wall. I was yelling at him, 'Come on, come along.' And he said no, he didn't want to come along. And I kept begging him, 'Get on before we get too far out.' And he just wouldn't.

"That was the last time I saw him."

RCMP say Kenneth was last seen around 4 p.m. that day in nearby Quinton, Sask. He has not been seen since.

His family reported him missing to the Punnichy RCMP on May 18, 1972.

RCMP still consider Kenneth to be a missing person, but the family is convinced he was murdered soon after he was last seen and that his remains are buried somewhere on the Kawacatoose First Nation.

"I believe he was murdered," Lorna said. "He was killed that night, Treaty Day."

In 1988 RCMP searched an area of Kawacatoose where it was reported Kenneth's remains may be, but no evidence was found.

Now the family wants authorities to do another search using modern technology.

Kenneth was known by the nickname Lenny, drawn from his full name Kenneth Leonard.

"He loved riding horses. We had a barn full of horses, and that was his thing," Lorna said. "A lot of people remember him on the reserve, going to visit the young fellas on horseback."

Like many kids on the reserve, he quit school at an early age.

"We only went up to Grade 8 here [on the First Nation]," Lorna said. "I think he left school when he was maybe about Grade 7."