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A 14-year-old boy has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a woman who, her father says, was just beginning to pull her life together after spending years in the care system.

Winnipeg police responded to a call at a home on Young Street near Sargent Avenue on Saturday around 7:30 a.m. 

Officers found a woman who had died from her injuries, police said in a news release on Wednesday. 

Avontai Hartleib, 18, was a member of Sachigo Lake First Nation in Ontario who had been living in Winnipeg, police said.

“She always had a smile. She’s always happy,” Hartleib’s father, David Hartleib, told CBC News on Wednesday. 

“She was just beginning her life, a new trail.”

‘It just hurts’

David first heard about his daughter’s death from a text his spouse got from a friend on Saturday.

“It’s something that no parent wants to wake up to hear and just experience,” he said. “It just hurts.”

David last saw his daughter during a visit in August, when they spoke about her plans for the future, including finding a job.

The two kept in touch, with his daughter calling to ask for advice.

“She would call me and ask me and say, ‘How do I deal with this?’ because I didn’t grow up with a pretty life either.”

Child and Family Services took Hartleib into care before she turned one, and she grew up bouncing among group homes and foster homes, he said.

His daughter was pressured by her group of friends and consumed drugs, he said.

Despite the circumstances she lived in, she was a happy child who enjoyed drawing and loved her siblings, he said.

Hartleib’s family plans to return her body to Sachigo Lake First Nation, a fly-in community roughly 560 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg in Ontario.

Police arrested a 14-year-old boy on Tuesday. He’s charged with criminal negligence causing death as well as second-degree murder. 

He was detained in custody, police said.