The bodies of two young Canadian women who had been reported missing by their families were found in a wooded area in Orangeville, Ontario, on Saturday.
Autopsy results for both victims are pending, but police have ruled out foul play and the family of one of the young women has indicated they believe the deaths may have been caused by prescription drug overdose. Receipts for hundreds of antipsychotic pills, purchased from two different pharmacies last Sunday and Monday, were found in one of the youth’s apartments.
Jeanine Blanchette, 21, and Chantal Dube, 17—who had been romantically involved since February—made farewell calls to friends on Tuesday and left behind goodbye letters to some of their loved ones, leading authorities and family members to suspect a possible double suicide.
The families of the youths contacted police on Tuesday but say they felt authorities failed to take their concerns seriously. After a fruitless three-day police search, Blanchette’s mother, Ellen, contacted Sandra Mae Shaw, a woman who had previously conducted psychic readings for the family. They began their own search for Blanchette and Dube on Saturday, which ended less than two hours later with the tragic discovery of the girls’ bodies.
“I just got this vision in my head of two girls in a field laying beside each other,” said Shaw, who had never previously been consulted for such a search. “I said to [Blanchette’s mother], you just tell police to look in the field close to her home. She’s there. I know she is.”
Blanchette’s family has asserted that they do not believe the deaths directly relate to the girls’ sexual orientation. Nonetheless, the news of these young women possibly having taken their lives could add two more names to the grim count of recent LGBT adolescent suicide victims being mourned.
