21-year-old Moses Campeau was found viciously attacked on the night of Sept. 9th
In a tragic incident now shrouded in mystery, a 21-year-old man was found fighting for his life on a community road in northern Manitoba earlier this month. Now two week after two passers-by came upon him struggling with severe injuries, provincial officials still do not know what it was that eventually claimed his life.
According to his mother, Paula Campeau, her son Moses was walking home after escorting his brother to a residence and was on his way to a celebration of life for a cousin when he was attacked. Two women who had been driving by, found Moses alive, laying on the side of the road less than 100 meters from his intended destination.
Campeau said her son had severe bite wounds to the stomach and thigh and defensive injuries to his right arm. His clothing was torn and shredded and he was groaning when the women reached him.
“He was still alive,” Campeau said. “He was on his back, lying on his back, and they were shocked to find him the way they found him.”
Moses (center) with his mother and father
The women stayed with him for about 90 minutes until he stopped breathing, then attempted to save him by performing CPR. Shared Health said emergency crews were dispatched from Swan River shortly before 3:15 a.m. and arrived at 4:21 a.m but paramedics were unable to revive him.
Swan River RCMP were first notified of a suspicious death and initially treated the incident as a homicide given the violent nature of his injuries. The file was transferred to RCMP Major Crime Services but an autopsy in Brandon soon turned the investigation on its head, listing the preliminary cause of death as an animal attack. And while investigators were able to determine that an animal was involved, they were unable to figure out just what kind of animal was responsible.
Now with a wildlife angle to the mysterious case, Manitoba Conservation was notified and placed a predator-attack team on the case. That team did a deep dive on the autopsy and evidence found at the scene and announced shortly after the incident that their preliminary findings ruled out a bear attack. Adding another level of shock to the community, now two weeks later, officials are not any closer to identifying what exactly it was that killed Moses Campeau on the night of September 9th.
Despite the official statements from the province, the Campeau family still believes a black bear, possibly a female with a cub seen in the area in the days before the attack, was responsible. But so far, no cameras or traps have been able to confirm the presence of bears in the immediate area.
As of right now, the investigation remains open and the murmurs in this small First Nations community continue to ask questions regarding just what happened to Moses Campeau on that fateful night.
