Police have confirmed that it was a teenage girl they found in a creek in the RM of Rosser just outside of Winnipeg on Wednesday, July 1.
Her name is Cherisse Houle and according to RCMP she had been missing since June 26, of this year.
A work crew was in the area installing pipeline and John Frose was the worker who discovered the body.
He says he was in his backhoe when he saw something in the nearby creek.
When he got closer he realized it was a young woman lying face down in the water.
He says he got goose bumps and began pacing back and forth.
He knew it was too late to help and he called 9-1-1.
Frose says it looked like body had been here for a few days.
The news of the death has been a little too much for Houle's friend Doreen Wolinski who is still trying to come to grips with the loss.
"She had a family, that's horrible to leave her body lying there," Wolinski said, shaking her head in disgust.
Cherisse Houle's body was found in Sturgeon Creek face down and fully clothed.
Friends of the missing woman wondered if it was her after seeing the news on Thursday.
"I heard it on the news yesterday and I was wondering who is that woman? And today I found out it was her," Shaylia Smith said.
It is not just friends who are troubled by the discovery of the missing teen.
"It's distressing for our officers because in the back of our mind we keep thinking maybe we would have done something a little more," Cst. Jacqueline Chaput said.
Wolinski used to live with Houle in a group home and she says it was not uncommon to pick up and leave.
"We used to run away all together," Wolinski said.
An autopsy was done Thursday, but the results could not determine a cause of death.
RCMP say they are not calling this murder.
Officers will not say if Houle was a sex trade worker, but those who knew her say she had worked the streets in the past.
They describe her life as hard, but say she had the most beautiful smile.
CTV News has learned the teen was in the care of Child and Family Services when she went missing.
We contacted them, but for privacy reasons they refused to comment.
Police say about two thirds of missing person's cases in Winnipeg are children in CFS custody.
Many of the teens who go missing are chronic runaways.
CTV News spoke with the family and while they wanted to share some memories of Cherisse they said it was just too early in the grief process.
One relative says Cherisse would run away quite often, but always kept in touch.
This time she did not and that had them fearing the worst.
With a report from CTV's Stacey Ashley
