EDMONTON — Family and friends are mourning online a toddler who was found dead outside a church in North Edmonton last week.
A Facebook group titled R.I.P. Anthony Joseph Raine had hundreds of posts as of Sunday evening, and a Go Fund Me page had raised more than $3,000 for the boy’s funeral.
The boy’s aunt, Brandi Raine, confirmed to The Canadian Press that police had informed the family it was Anthony who was found dead outside the Good Shepherd Anglican Church on Friday, however, she declined to be interviewed.
The Go Fund Me page says the boy’s mother is from the Louis Bull Tribe in central Alberta, but the child was not registered with the band.
Brandi Raine wrote on the page that Anthony “was the sweetest little boy you can meet.”
A 26-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were arrested Saturday evening in Edmonton, and homicide investigators said in a release issued Sunday that they “believed” the two to be responsible for the boy’s death.
Police have indicated they will release more information about the suspects once charges are laid and an autopsy scheduled for today is completed.
Investigators have said they believe the boy was left near the church on Tuesday morning, three days before his body was found by a passerby on Friday.
The case has triggered an outpouring of grief in Edmonton.
There is now a makeshift shrine outside the Good Shepherd Anglican Church where people have been leaving flowers, children’s toys and messages of condolence.