'Erase these messages': New details emerge from fatal St. Lawrence River human smuggling run
Alleged smuggler facing U.S. extradition request was told weather made crossing attempt dangerous
One of the key players allegedly behind a fatal cross-border human smuggling run that ended in the St. Lawrence River drowning deaths last March of nine people — including two young children — is currently facing an extradition request from the U.S. on a nine-count indictment, according to court records.
Stephanie Square, 51, was arrested by Akwesasne Mohawk Police on the morning of Aug. 22 and remains in custody pending the outcome of the extradition process, which is being handled through Quebec Superior Court in Montreal.
Square was indicted, along with three others, on June 26 by a U.S. grand jury on alien smuggling charges, including conspiracy to commit alien smuggling, alien smuggling for profit and alien smuggling causing death.
Dakota Montour, 30, and Rahsontanoshtha Delormier, 29, both from Akwesasne and indicted with Square, remain at large. The fourth indicted individual, Janice Terrance, is currently in U.S. custody.
Extradition records filed in Quebec court and obtained by CBC News reveal previously undisclosed details, including text messages and concerns over weather conditions, leading to the fatal March 29, 2023, river crossing.
The bodies of eight people, four family members from India and four family members from Romania, were recovered by Akwesasne police and the Canadian Coast Guard from the St. Lawrence River on March 30 and 31. The body of the boat driver, Casey Oakes, was later pulled from the river on July 3, about 12 kilometres away.
Human smuggling organizations have historically exploited Akwesasne's territory, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border and includes islands in the St. Lawrence River, to move people north and south across the international boundary.
Akwesasne, a Haudenesaunee community with a band government on the Canadian side and a tribal government on the U.S. side, sits about 120 kilometres west of Montreal.
The RCMP announced in June it had charged eight people and dismantled a human smuggling ring allegedly led by a man from Montreal that was also connected with the fatal river crossing.
One individual charged, Cheyenne Lewis, 51, from Akwesasne, remains at large.
The RCMP investigation ran parallel to the U.S. probe led by Homeland Security Investigations.
Connected to deaths of Romanian family
The U.S. probe connected Square with the deaths of the Romanian family — Iorin Iordache, his wife Christina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, their daughter, two-year-old Evelin, and one-year-old son, Elyen.
Square was known in Akwesasne as someone who regularly moved "heads," a term used to describe human smuggling, according to the court records. She moved people north and south across the Canada-U.S. border. On Sept. 14, 2023, Square was connected with the attempted smuggling into Canada of a Colombian who was a convicted felon and deported from the U.S. in 2000.
The timeline of Square's activities outlined in the court records pick up on March 28, 2023, as she allegedly searched for a boatman to take the Romanian family from Cornwall Island — which sits just across from Cornwall, Ont. — across the St. Lawrence River.
The first boatman she asked turned her down because the weather conditions at the time made the river crossing too perilous. Yet, she allegedly persisted and purchased a green boat from the same individual for $5,000 and asked Delormier to make the river crossing instead.
Square also tasked Montour with picking up the Iordache family from a Cornwall motel and driving them to Cornwall Island, which is connected to the mainland by bridges. Montour was also hired to pick up the Iordache family once they made it across the river and take them down to Plattsburgh, N.Y.
It appears Delormier set off for Cornwall Island from the southern banks of the St. Lawrence around midnight on March 29, 2023, but then the engine of the green boat stalled.
"[Delormier] called me and said he's just floating around in the middle of the river cause the boat died on him and it won't turn over or anything," Montour texted his girlfriend at about 12:40 a.m., according to court records.
At 2:11 a.m., Montour set up a three-way call between Square and Delormier. The boat's motor just wouldn't start and Delormier ended up stranded on an island where he was eventually found suffering near hypothermia by Akwesasne police during the day on March 30.
Plans changed
But on March 29, at 3 a.m., Square was allegedly hatching another plan to use another boat that would eventually involve Casey Oakes.
According to the court records, Montour picked up the Iordache family from the Elect Inn 5 in Cornwall shortly after 3 a.m. and drove them to the home of Casey Oakes' brother, Timothy Oakes, who lives on Cornwall Island. Timothy Oakes has not been charged with any crime.
The Iordache family stayed at Oakes's home throughout the day on March 29. At about 9:30 p.m., Timothy Oakes towed a light blue boat to the eastern tip of Cornwall Island for his brother, Casey Oakes, who planned to pilot the vessel and ferry the Romanian family across.
According to a separate police complaint filed in India, with a timeline that closely matches with the Square extradition court record, the Indian family also boarded the same boat piloted by Casey Oakes that evening. However, the Square records make no mention of the Indian family in its description of these specific events leading to the drownings.
The weather was rough on the evening of March 29, 2023, with wind gusts topping 60 km/h, according to the court records.
Still, Casey Oakes pushed off.
By 10 p.m., Montour had alerted Square that he couldn't find the boat or the family. Square told Montour to find people to help in the search, according to the court files. At 10:09 p.m., Akwesasne police received their first report from a local resident who heard screams for help from the river.
Akwesasne police scoured the waters from shore but did not launch a boat that night.
By 3 a.m., the scale of the tragedy was setting in. Timothy Oakes texted a relative to say he was worried Casey Oakes had flipped the boat in rough weather
At 3:36 a.m., Square texted Montour telling him to "erase these messages."
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With files from Romaine Schue and Elizabeth Thompson