Family unable to draw woman with drug addiction away from North End home
The family of 25-year-old Shanastene McLeod drummed in front of three homes in the North End Tuesday night, hoping to convince her to leave a life of drugs and come home to safety.
They managed to coax her from a home, but after greeting everybody, McLeod ultimately refused to leave with her family.
McLeod went missing May 21. Police found her within days, but she disappeared again.
McLeod's family said she has a drug problem and they believed she was holed up in a home well known to law enforcement. They also feared she was being exploited.
So on Tuesday night, McLeod's family and friends drummed and sang songs of their culture in front of a home they believed she was inside.
"Who's daughter's going to be next, who's son is going to be next?" said McLeod's father David Beauchamp. "We have to put a stop to this today before there's no tomorrow."
When McLeod didn't emerge, a few women marched up the front steps and kicked the door in. But she wasn't in that home after all.
Rachel Willan was with the group. She met a woman on the street in the neighbourhood who claimed to have seen McLeod recently.
"We're looking for Shanastene and she does come here, so if she is here we're going to kick the doors in and that's it," said Willan.
The group continued to move through the area, knocking on doors along the way but coming up short. Finally, they arrived at a home on Boyd Avenue following a tip from someone in the neighbourhood.
Beauchamp said his daughter used to drum and sing. He hoped that when she heard the music, she'd feel connected to her roots outside.
After a few minutes of drumming and singing, McLeod emerged from a home with boarded-up windows.
"It's nice to hear drum and everything, I guess, but I ain't missing," McLeod said shortly after she came outside.
"You might not be missing, but we're missing you," her aunt Jackie Traverse said
After a few more minutes, the reunion ended and McLeod walked back toward the home with the boarded up windows, away from her family and friends.
"It's not going to be successful each time but you know, we're going to keep on," said Bear Clan Patrol member James Favel.
"We're going to name and shame, we're going to put these people on the spot. They're not going to feel comfortable doing this in our community any longer."
Worried about daughter
Earlier in the day, Beauchamp said he's worried about his daughter.
"I just don't want her to end up as another statistic, ending up in the river somewhere," Beauchamp said. "I am sick of hearing of our women and our children ending up in rivers and streams and it's all because of drugs."
After choosing to not leave with her family Tuesday night, Beauchamp said he has faith their attempts to get her back will eventually be successful.
"The community is strong, stronger than the drug dealers," said Beauchamp, who narrowly escaped an addiction to crack cocaine himself.
He wants her to come home to her two children. The gathering was designed to show McLeod and other women in bad situations that the community is there for them, Beauchamp said.
