‘She had a life she wanted to live:’ Sister of murdered Saskatoon teen remembers Belanger-Weeseekase

Tamara Weeseekase was with a friend on Saturday in Saskatoon when a phone call came through, sharing news that would change her life forever.

On the other end of the phone was her mom, calling from North Battleford with the news that Tamara’s 19-year-old sister had been killed earlier that afternoon in Saskatoon.

Saskatoon police shared that same information Tuesday in a follow-up press release to the homicide of Hailey Belanger-Weeseekase. Originally, the death in a vehicle near Diefenbaker Drive had been considered suspicious.

“We’re dealing with it. We have to deal with it,” said Tamara, the elder of the two Weeseekase siblings. “It’s just planning, and processing, and it’s just really trying to get through with it.”

Saskatoon police investigate a suspicious death at an apartment building on the 3700 block of Diefenbaker Drive on July 11, 2020. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

Although the death occurred shortly around 4 p.m., Weeseekase’s mother didn’t receive the call until around midnight that same day. From there, her mother was driven back to Saskatoon to pick up Tamara.

They didn’t sleep for the duration of that night, trying to comprehend the news that their 19-year-old daughter and sister was gone, and setting up the funeral for the teenage victim.

“It hasn’t quite set in yet; I don’t think it will for a while,” Tamara explained. “It’s just been a waiting game.”

The family, originally from the Loon Lake area in northern Saskatchewan, is remembering Belanger-Weeseekase as not what some are portraying her to be, but who she was before she ended up falling into the wrong crowd.

“I see a few people on comments assuming she was just another hood kid. But she wasn’t. She was in that crowd, yes, but she was way more than that,” Weeseekase said.

“She was more than a gang kid. She was more than that. That’s not who she was, that’s just what she got tangled up in. She had a life she wanted to live.”

Growing up, Weeseekase says her sister was a really good kid.

“She was a happy kid, very outgoing. She loved being around people. She loved talking to people, she was always hanging out with friends,” Tamara said before choking up.

“It’s just going to be weird that she’s not going to show up one day. And she’s not going to be back one day … We’re used to her (not) coming home for a day or two, because she’d be at a friend’s. But it’s different because she’s not coming back this time.”

When Weeseekase looked back on the crowd her sister had fallen into, she explained how the “gang life” created a sense of community for those in need of their own support system.

“A lot of them, they gravitated towards each other. They suffered from the same stuff,” she said. “A lot of them will struggle from addiction or mental health problems that they couldn’t get help from … It was really easy for them to just (fall) back into that cycle of community.”

As the Weeseekase family continues to plan for the funeral of a girl who once was an outgoing and happy teenager, Tamara had a message for those caught in that same cycle.

“People do care,” she said through tears. “If you need to ask for help, ask for help. I know they might not think that people want to help them, but we do. We don’t want more people to end up like this.”

The investigation into Belanger-Weeseekase’s death remains ongoing. Anyone with information about the Saturday afternoon homicide can contact the Saskatoon Police Service or CrimeStoppers.