Annie Pootoogook's brother fears he'll never know the cause of her death

Pauloosie Joanasie said he doesn't know if he will ever really know what led to the death of his sister, famed Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook, who was found in a river running through Ottawa last September.

Joanasie said he still misses his younger sister. 

"I miss her, that is all. She was my friend, my little sister too," said Joanasie in an interview with CBC News at the Oaks residency in Ottawa. "Something happened and it's too late. What can I do? I have nothing more to say."

The Ottawa Police Service never contacted Joanasie to tell him they had finished their investigation into Pootoogook's death, he said, adding the last time they spoke to him was shortly after she was found in the Rideau River on Sept. 19, 2016.

"They did come, they did come here to ask questions to me," he said.

Joanasie said he didn't know the police had finished their investigation until he was informed by CBC News.

"I really don't know nothing," he said. "Until the police came one day and they came and tell me the bad news, I couldn't do nothing. I was crying though."

Sources told CBC News the Ottawa Police Service has been unable to pinpoint an exact cause of death because of a lack of evidence.

Though police are about to wrap up a report into their 13-month investigation, a senior officer with the Ottawa Police Service said the case will remain open.

Pootoogook, 47, was living with her partner William Watt shortly before her death.

"I've dealt with it. I am happy to hear there is no foul play," he said Tuesday. "Not knowing what happens is the worst part. I've been in the dark for a year."

Veldon Coburn, an Algonquin man who adopted one of Pootoogook's children, said he believes Ottawa Police Service did all they could do.

"One of the things that they said is they can't actually determine the cause of death. There were two autopsies [but] they can't determine if she was drowned by herself or by someone else," said Coburn, who has been in contact with police.

"The indication that I received was that the recovery of evidence wasn't as promising. The environment that Annie was found in made it difficult to determine the cause of death," said Coburn, in an interview with CBC News reporter Judy Trinh on Tuesday.

Pootoogook was buried in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, where she was born.