Leticia Oliveira Alves found dead after 3 border attempts in Estrie
Leticia Oliveira Alves was found dead in a forest in Coaticook, Estrie, near the Canada-U.S. border after three failed legal attempts to enter Canada in January 2024. The 36-year-old Brazilian woman was identified only recently, after investigators matched her genetic profile with DNA collected when she had been detained by American authorities.
Coroner Donald Nicole concluded that she was likely dead from cold. His report also said the Quebec autopsy found no sign that she had been the victim of violence. The body was discovered by hunters at about 5 p.m. on April 26, 2024, at the end of a steel culvert stored along a private forest road in Coaticook.
Three border turns back
Nicole said Oliveira Alves tried to enter Canada legally on January 7, 2024, at Stanstead, on January 10 at Newport and on January 11 at Buffalo. Canadian border agents turned her back each time. The coroner estimated her time of death as January 15, 2024, four days after the last refusal.
That sequence leaves a narrow window between the last border refusal and the estimated date of death. She had already been in the United States illegally since January 21, 2023, according to the facts in the coroner’s report.
Coaticook forest discovery
The remains were found in a forest in Coaticook, a town in Estrie close to the border. Nicole described the body as having “présentait des signes importants de momification,” and concluded in his report that she was “vraisemblablement morte de froid.”
The body was not identified when hunters found it in April 2024. The genetic match came later, after her DNA profile was compared with a sample taken during her detention by U.S. authorities. That identification tied the forest discovery to the earlier border crossings and gave investigators a name for the remains.
Family in Brazil
Frederico, her brother, said the family last heard from her in December 2023, when she was in Boston. He said she had gone there to meet a lawyer about obtaining a visa. He also said: “Leticia avait de grands rêves; elle voulait terminer son doctorat et rêvait de vivre dans un monde moins intolérant. […] J’espère retrouver la paix à l’avenir, mais pour l’instant, je suis plongé dans une profonde tristesse”.
The case now sits on the coroner’s findings: a woman found in Estrie, no violence detected in the autopsy, and three rejected legal entry attempts before her death was estimated. For readers following the case, the remaining facts are the route she took, the timeline already fixed by the report, and the identification that came only after her remains had lain unclaimed for months.
