RCMP charge woman in drowning death of five-year-old girl in Alberta lake

Mounties say accused and child were not related, but from same community

RCMP say they have charged a woman in the drowning death of a five-year-old girl in an Alberta lake last month.

Mounties initially said a canoe had overturned on Wabamun Lake west of Edmonton on Oct. 13.

They said a child and a woman were pulled from the water and that, despite life-saving efforts, the girl died at the scene.

Three days later, Mounties said they’d learned the canoe didn’t capsize and were treating the drowning as a criminal matter.