SIX NATIONS – Five months ago, 27-year-old Dustin Monture was shot to death at a Tuscarora Road address and discovered in the driveway.
Since then, family members have been trying to get answers to some of the most basic of questions about the ensuing investigation, or lack thereof, by Six Nations Police. According to Bill Monture, Dustin’s uncle, they have not heard anything other than “it is still under investigation,” from Six Nations police investigators.
That isn’t good enough for the family who believe a full-fledged murder investigation should have been immediately conducted. But according to family members, that did not happen and with every day that passes, the case gets colder.
Out of frustration, the family has put up a $5,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever shot Dustin Monture in the back of the head and left him to die. Others have also pledged rewards for information that would bring the murderer to justice.
“In the meantime, a murderer is running free,” says Monture.
“We know people know. They know what happened … and they won’t come forward,” says the victim’s mother Roxanne Farmer.
Monture had a checkered past with drug and weapons related charges and the family acknowledges the death may be drug related, but that shouldn’t matter if it was or was not. “This is about a murder,” said Bill Monture. “Not about drugs or anything else.”
He was initially brought to Haldimand General Hospital where it was thought originally thought he was the victim of a severe beating. It wasn’t until he was later transported by air ambulance to Hamilton General where it was discovered he had been shot. He died at 4 p.m.
According to the family, a videotape of the victim being brought into Haldimand General Hospital was preserved by the hospital for evidence, but Six Nations police did not pick that tape up and still have not after five months. The surveillance tapes are only kept for 24 hours before being taped over again, but family members asked for a copy for their own private investigation of the facts surrounding Dustin’s murder, and the hospital complied.
This tape was also offered to police but, to date, no one from SNPD or the OPP have bothered to pick it up or even view it.
The hospital surveillance tape shows a woman, possibly the Tuscarora Road homeowner, bring the mortally wounded Monture to emergency.
They also say that others who may have information about what actually happened have not been interviewed, and even the Tuscarora Road address where the body was found was never fully investigated.
Staff Sgt. Marwood White of the Six Nations Police Services tells Two Row Times that there is no new information or updates on the case that he is authorized to share.
Although the OPP are assisting in case, the investigation is still a Six Nations Police Services responsibility and therefor they will release no information. That would be up to SNPS.
Monture is also questioning the handing of the recent missing person, presumed to have been murdered, as well, with no results. Although two women have been accused of the crime, to date there has been no body found and that case is also “still under investigation” according to SN police.
No information from the SNPS investigation of the Dustin Monture murder has been released to the family to date, according to Bill Monture on behalf of the family.
“We’re hearing so many stories,” said Farmer. “It’s like the community is trying to solve this puzzle ourselves.”