Mother of 13-year-old 'loving, kind-hearted' overdose victim regrets not getting her day in court
CBC
Presley Wilchuck loved going to the beach and playing football. The 13-year-old girl had big dreams and wanted to become a hot rod mechanic.
"She was the most amazing kid. She was ambitious. She loved her sport. She wasn't scared to go out and do anything new," said Wilchuck's mother Rheanne Fazakas. "She was just so kind-hearted. She was just a loving, goofy little girl."
But the girl's life was cut short when she overdosed in January at a home in Regina.
Now Fazakas is speaking out and calling for change after six gruelling months spent looking for answers about what happened to her daughter.
Fazakas said she was close with Wilchuck. Their mother-daughter relationship was entering the phase where they were becoming good friends and confidants.
She had a split-custody agreement Wilchuck's father. The teen spent half of her time in Regina with her father, where she went to school, and the other half with Fazakas in Buena Vista — a village about 50 kilometres northwest of Regina.
Fazakas said her daughter matured quickly while going to school in Regina. Wilchuck began spending time with a group of older teens, who were between the ages of 15 and 17.
Fazakas felt the people in the group were bad influences on her daughter, so she transferred Wilchuck to a new school for the eighth grade.
"But she couldn't click with any other children her age ... she found it hard that a lot of them were less mature than her."
And so, the 13-year-old's relationship with the older friend group continued. They were known to smoke pot, skip school, break rules and display other "troubling" behaviour, Fazakas said.
"She was so vulnerable, you know, pretty easily persuaded to do these things."
On the night of Jan. 8, 2023, Wilchuck's father dropped her off at a home on the 600 Block of King Street in Regina.
She had said it was a friend's house.
Three days later, Fazakas learned her daughter had not been seen by her family since that night.