Their sister died in December and was buried in January. Why weren't they notified?

It breaks Candice Wheeler's heart to know she missed her big sister's funeral in January. It's not that she didn't want to be there — she simply didn't know it was happening. 

Now, Candice and her family in Calgary are searching for answers about how authorities failed to notify them when Courtney Wheeler died in December 2021 and was buried the next month.

"There was nobody there, and no flowers … and it just implies that nobody cared," said Wheeler, 36.

"She was very loved, and she deserved better." 

In most cases, when a person dies unidentified or unclaimed, the office of the chief medical examiner can identify and locate their next of kin within hours, the province says.

If not, the province says the office will continue to search until all efforts have been "exhausted."

But the Wheelers say they didn't learn about Courtney's death until months after it happened, and even then, they didn't get the news from officials. Instead, they found out about her passing through social media. 

That's left them to wonder how diligent the search for Courtney's next of kin really was.

It's particularly concerning, they say, as it appears to be the second similar case in Calgary within the span of just a few months. In February, Tara Niptanatiak died and was buried in the city the next month, unbeknownst at the time to her family in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. 

"Who's allowing this to happen?" said Chrissy Wheeler, 44, who is Courtney's older sister.

When Candice Wheeler first learned of Courtney's death, it had been months since she'd last heard from her middle sister. 

That wasn't unprecedented. In the years before her death, Courtney struggled with homelessness and escalating addiction, and was known to fall off the map for weeks or even months before resurfacing.

But in late May, Candice received a Facebook message from a friend of Courtney's who'd learned about her death after another friend stumbled on a brief online obituary, posted by the funeral home that arranged the burial. 

Concerned, Candice called the police non-emergency number. She was redirected to the office of the chief medical examiner, which confirmed her sister's death.