RCMP have determined that a man who was found floating in frigid water last year, in fact, died of foul play.

On May 1st, 2011 an officer responded to a call on the Ahtahkakoop First Nation.

Around that same time a passerby saw 25 year-old Christian Bird hanging onto some ice in Sandy Lake, about 50 feet out.

The officer came upon the scene and the pair managed to fish Bird out of the water.

However despite their efforts Bird was declared deceased soon-afterwards.

Corporal Rob King says officers have since spoken to people in the community and believe the disturbance they were called to involved Bird, and that he did not die naturally:

“It’s been an on-going investigation.  The member’s been speaking to a lot of people in the community, gathering a lot more evidence and slowly putting the pieces together, slowly building the last few hours of Mr. Bird’s life and it’s led them to believe that this is in fact a homicide.”

Four people have now been arrested in connection to the event.

Three of the accused are young offenders while the 4th has been identified as 19 year-old Dannie Justin Knife of Prince Albert.