Incident downtown brings back memories of missing son

The mother of a man who has been missing for almost a decade says news of a recent incident at a Winnipeg hotel has opened up old and painful wounds because that hotel is one of the last places her son was seen alive.

“It just triggered me to see something like that happen at the Marlborough Hotel, because that is where the investigation started when Colten went missing,” Lydia Joyce Daniels said on Tuesday. “A lot of sad thoughts have resurfaced, so it’s been a tough few days.”

Daniel’s son Colten Pratt was 26 years old and hanging out with a group of friends at the Marlborough Hotel on Smith Street on Nov. 6, 2014. At some point in the early morning hours of Nov. 7, Winnipeg police (WPS) believe he went from the hotel to a bus shelter at the corner of Main Street and Redwood Avenue.

WPS say they have a video that shows Pratt in and around the bus stop on the morning of Nov. 7, sometime between 12:20 a.m. and 1:45 a.m., and that footage is the last known time Pratt was seen alive.

Daniels made it clear that although the Marlborough Hotel is one of the last places her son was last seen, she does not believe anything happened at the hotel that led directly or indirectly to his disappearance.

But she says if she even hears the words “Marlborough Hotel” it is difficult because of her son’s grim connection to the hotel, as one of the last places he was ever seen, and the almost 10 years of unanswered question that have followed.

“I’m living in a state of suspended grief,” Daniels said. “I just can’t move forward, because I believe in my heart that Colten is deceased and that he has moved on to the spirit world, but we just don’t have the physical evidence. We need his remains to finally bring closure.

“And now the wounds have been reopened again watching this video.”

A video posted on Facebook on Dec. 26 that has since gone viral, appears to show a young Indigenous woman being restrained with zip-ties by hotel employees in the Marlborough Hotel lobby in downtown Winnipeg on Christmas Day.

Daniels said because of her concern about the video, and because of her son’s connection to the hotel, she decided to show up on Sunday at a rally held in the hotel lobby that was organized by First Nations leaders and advocates to show support for the woman, an event she said became increasingly “tense” as some forced their way into the hotel’s basement.

She hopes for an “impartial and thorough investigation” into what happened at the hotel on Dec. 25, and why the woman was forcefully restrained that day.

“I do believe it is so important that we get to the bottom of the incident, because the video itself is disturbing, so we need to understand what happened and why,” Daniels said.

“This can’t just be something that is swept under the rug.”

She said she also continues to hope that people will come forward if they have any information about the son she has not seen or heard from in almost 10 years.

“I need answers,” she said. “I need closure.”

Pratt is described by police as 5-foot-10, approximately 160 pounds with a thin build, short brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a brown plaid jacket and blue jeans.

Anyone with information regarding any missing persons case in Winnipeg can call the Missing Persons Unit at 204-986-6250 or Winnipeg Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477.

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.