Slain Whitefish First Nation couple were 'wonderful kids' destined to lead their community

Dylan Laboucan was smart and gifted, a polite young man with a smile for everyone.

Cory Grey was strong and outgoing, a bigger-than-life young woman who simply would not allow tragedy to shape her destiny.

"They were going to be leaders in their community," said Eddie Sargent, who taught both teens at the reserve school in a tiny community north of Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta.

"They were going to find success."

Those bright futures went black, like someone flipped off a light switch, earlier this week, when someone shot and killed Laboucan, 17, and his girlfriend, Grey, 19, and dumped their bodies on two separate well sites on the Whitefish Lake First Nations reserve.

How could this happen to them?

Sargent taught at Atikameg School from September 2009 until June 2014. He was principal during the last two years and is now chair of academics at Northern Lakes College in Slave Lake, where his two former students were registered to attend classes this fall.

The fact that both teens finished high school (Laboucan was the only member of his graduating class this spring) was "a big deal," Sargent said, given the odds stacked against so many Indigenous students in Canada.

"There's so many other issues that the students contend with, outside of school, that they have to overcome," he said. "That's why it's a big deal."

Many of the young people he taught, Sargent said, "have lived a lifetime of tragedies by the time they're 18 years old. Four of the students that I've coached and taught in Atikameg have been convicted of murder. That's not normal."

Laboucan and Grey, according to their families, friends and former teacher, were exceptional in many ways.

"They were never involved with drugs or drinking," Sargent said. "I think that's why it's so shocking to everyone. Everyone's thinking, 'How could this happen to Dylan and Cory?' They were not the type of kids who were ever involved in that world where something like this would happen to them.

"In Canada, a lot of the non-Aboriginal population has these stereotypes," he said. "These students were wonderful kids. They were wonderful, wonderful kids that were on the cusp of becoming independent and giving so much back to society. And they were taken away for absolutely no reason."

Laboucan got the top marks in math and science in his grade.

"He was a really, really gifted student," Sargent said. "He had the world in front of him. He was someone who was going to do very well in life."

Laboucan's mother, Becky Thunder, said her son was a fast learner who once skipped a grade.

"His dreams were big and he was chasing after them," she said."I raised my son well."

Grey was also a good student, he said.

Melinda Yellowknee was close to Grey growing up on the reserve and admired her friend, who had plans to work with children after college.

"I was proud of her because that's also my goal," Yellowknee said, who had a baby not long ago and is finishing who studies through home schooling. "I actually wanted to do the same thing as she's doing, after I graduate Grade 12."

'It hurts so much'

Laboucan and Grey were from Whitefish River, a tiny place 40 minutes down a gravel road from Atikameg. Both communities are part of the Whitefish Lake First Nation.

Atikameg School didn't even have a senior high program for many years, so kids who wanted to go beyond junior high had to attend a boarding school in High Prairie, Sargent said, an hour down the highway. Many students found it difficult being away from home at such young ages, which hurt their chances of finishing high school.

The local started the program again five or six years ago. In 2014, the first graduating class in recent memory had nine students, the largest by far in the school's history, Sargent said.

When Dylan was in Grade 7, the school started up a basketball team. The boy came into his own around then, Sargent said. He grew taller and gained confidence, and eventually captained the team, which won division championships in back to back years.

"If he didn't have Cory hand in hand, it would be a basketball," Thunder said of her son.

"It hurts so much," she said. "I never thought I'd see this day, to lose one of my children."

Sargent said teachers who taught Laboucan and Grey at Atikameg School, but now live elsewhere in the province or the country, are making their way north to pay their respects.

"They're travelling from Calgary, from south of Edmonton, one's actually trying to get here from Ontario," he said. "That's the impact that they had on people.

"We've had a lot of tragedy in Atikameg. And this is not like the other times."