Family of woman found dead in Winnipeg bus shelter calling for more resources

A Winnipeg family is speaking out about the death of their loved one at a bus shelter on a cold night and is calling for more resources to be available for people in extreme weather.

Energetic, fun and loving -- it is how 24-year-old Kesha Rae is remembering her older sister.

"We visited a lot. She was always the one I would copy a lot, especially the hair colour," Rae said.

"She dyed my hair when I was younger when my adoptive parents didn't actually want to let me. I bought it anyways, went there and came back with blue hair."

Rae's sister Kayla was found unresponsive in a bus shelter at the corner of Goulet Street and Tache Avenue on the afternoon of Dec. 5.

Temperatures had dipped far below freezing, with outreach workers finding the 27-year-old covered with several blankets.

Due to privacy concerns, police didn't release Kayla's cause of death, but her family says it was cardiac arrest,

"My mom was on the phone, and I just remember her crying and saying your sister is gone. It didn't really go through my head right away. I was kind of like, who? I only have one older sister," recalled Rae.

Rae said her sister struggled after witnessing a fatal hit-and-run that left her cousin dead in 2015.

She said Kayla was most recently living at an aunt's house in Winnipeg and helping out at a local homeless shelter.

"She was doing good for the last two years. She was clean. She was healthy. She was starting to get back on track. She was starting to talk about going back to school, get her diploma."

After Kayla's death, the City of Winnipeg added a temporary warming shelter on St. Mary's Road, something Rae would like to see more of in extreme temperatures.

"It would just be nice to have more warmer places for people to go," said Rae. "Even when I'm taking a bus downtown, I notice there's not a whole lot of places to stand to stay warm. Like bus shelters, half the time the heat isn't even on."

Rae said she'd also like to see some sort of safety measure put in place to try and prevent incidents like Kayla's in the future.

Kayla Rae was the second oldest of seven siblings from North Spirit Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario.