GYPSUMVILLE — RCMP have sealed off a small stretch of dense forest in this Interlake community after what some local residents say was the discovery of a body.
Police will only say the contained scene is related to the ongoing investigation surrounding the mysterious disappearance of a Portage la Prairie teen.
Justice sources say there is no longer an "active search" underway. More official information is expected today.
Area residents say police have been going around the community asking questions and showing people a photo of Jennifer Leigh Catcheway, who was due to attend a barbecue celebrating her 18th birthday in Portage La Prairie when she disappeared June 19.
Her vanishing act has stunned family and friends, who have been organizing volunteer searches for several days with no luck.
"It's frustrating," Wilfred Catcheway, Jennifer's father, said Friday. "We just want to find her."
The case took a dramatic turn Friday when police said they had arrested two men for questioning in connection with Catcheway's disappearance.
"Two adult males have been arrested, questioned and released without charge, in connection with Jennifer Catcheway's disappearance," RCMP Media Relations Officer Sgt. Line Karpish said.
No further details were provided. The RCMP major crime and RCMP serious crime units from Winnipeg are now assisting in the investigation.
Catcheway has been searching with a group of volunteers for his daughter in an area near Gypsumville in the Interlake, halfway between Portage La Prairie and where she was last reported seen.
He said the RCMP have prevented the volunteers from continuing to search in that area.
"We went in that area and now they want to close it off," Catcheway said. "They claim we are contaminating the area. I feel that they're slow at their response."
Police said Friday afternoon they were following leads that include a ground search of an "area of interest" near Gypsumville.
Volunteers were originally searching at the Dakota Tipi First Nation near Portage la Prairie.
Catcheway said a family member last saw Jennifer on June 19 getting into a truck in Grand Rapids for what was supposed to be the return trip to Portage la Prairie.
"It was her birthday. She wanted to come home," Catcheway said. "And she didn't make it home."
When she spoke to her mother later the same day, Jennifer said she was in Skownan, about 100 kilometres west of Gypsumville, Catcheway said. He doubts she was actually there and suspects she may have been under the influence of drugs.
Catcheway said the situation has taken its toll on his wife Bernice.
"She can't sleep, she can't eat, she is frustrated, she's exhausted, she cries," Catcheway said. "That goes for the whole family, including myself."
Justice reporter Mike McIntyre is in Gypsumville and will have more on this story at www.winnipegfreepress.com and in Sunday's paper.
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