Kadin Savikataaq has been missing for a year and a half. Her family is still searching

On the western sandwich coast of william henry hudson quest, an unresolved mystery story looms over the hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut, a fly-in community of about 3,200 people. 

What happened to Kadin Savikataaq? Where is she? Does anyone know?

Kadin went missing in Arviat in August 2024 after she went out for the night and never returned. The truck she'd been driving was later discovered submerged in Hudson Bay, but Kadin was never found and nobody has come forward with any information about what happened.

Kadin's family is certain of one thing: she won't be returning home. 

"In my heart, I know that she didn't come home because something was done to her."

Kadin was distinctive in that she had two sets of parents. 

Her birth parents, Siuqpaat and Dudley Copland, and her adoptive parents, Joe Savikataaq Jr. And Lillian Savikataaq, Siuqpaat's sister. 

At the age of two or three, Copland says Kadin became attached to her aunt and uncle and grew up mostly at their house. 

When they legally adopted Kadin, her aunt and uncle kept her last name of Copland, but Kadin changed it to Savikataaq when she turned 19.

They shared a special bond, and she even followed in her uncle's footsteps when she became a pilot. 

"I just called her my Kadin'naaq," Joe said. "Like mine, my Kadin." (The word Naaq in Inuktitut describes someone as being small, it can also mean to feel a sense of care.) 

Siuqpaat Copland remembers the last time she saw her daughter.

Kadin had come for supper after working at the community's cargo office, a job she picked up while waiting for a medical exam to get her commercial pilot's licence. She already had a private pilot's licence.

Kadin was one of Siuqpaat and Dudley Copland's five children. Copland says her daughter was "a very outgoing, determined kid."

She says Kadin was always challenging herself by taking on things out of her comfort zone. "She liked doing big things, big dreams."

Copland's voice becomes a whisper as she recalls the last thing Kadin said to her: "Mom, I'm not sleeping at home." 

Instead, Kadin told her she was going to stay with a friend.

At 10:15 p.m. On Aug. 19, 2024, Kadin left the house with Copland's white truck for the last time.

Copland says she woke up in the middle of the night, worried about her daughter, so she texted her. She says Kadin told her she was still driving. When Kadin stopped replying to her messages, she started to worry.

The friend Kadin was supposed to be staying with was also worried. In the middle of the night, he went to Copland's house to tell her that Kadin had called to ask for a ride home because she'd been drinking. He told Copland he heard at least two other men with Kadin when she called.

Together, they went looking for Kadin.

While driving, they saw ATV lights in the distance and headed toward The Point, what people in Arviat call Nuvuk, a stretch of land that leads to Hudson Bay during low tide. The area has no trees and is surrounded by bogs and marshlands. 

When they got closer to the ATVs, Copland stopped one of the drivers and asked what was going on. He told her there was a white truck in the water, that they'd tried to get to it, but that the tide was coming in.   

"That's when I knew. It was Kadin." Copland said, her voice lowering to a whisper. "It was our truck."

Copland turned back to tell her family, but on the way, she says she came upon one of the men Kadin had reportedly been drinking with.

"So we stopped and said ‘Our truck's in the water, where's Kadin?' But he wasn't saying anything, so we just left him."

Meanwhile, someone posted a photo of the submerged truck to Facebook that soon made its way to Joe.

"I knew something was wrong," he said. "I quickly got up, called my dad and told him to get our boat ready."

Joe Jr. Is the mayor of Arviat, and at the time, his father, Joe Savikataaq Sr., was the premier of Nunavut.

By the time they arrived, the tide had come in, covering the truck under water. Joe says it was one of the hardest moments in his life, "seeing a truck like that, not knowing if she's in there." 

Kadin Savikataaq's truck found submerged after she disappeared

He says he used the boat anchor to break the window but couldn't see inside because of the murky water.

"So I put my hand as far down as I could. I didn't feel anything. I put my whole foot inside the vehicle trying to feel for anything, anything of Kadin or her body. There was nothing. She was not in there."

Because The Point is a long reef, Joe says the truck had to be driven out there at low tide. 

He is certain that Kadin died that fateful night.

"I don't know any details," he said. "I'm sure I know there are people that do know but are not talking."

The search for Kadin started almost immediately. By morning, the whole community was involved. Joe says it was the biggest search effort he's ever seen, involving ATVs, trucks, boats and even a helicopter.

"And I myself was flying an airplane, doing grids," he said. "No matter where I flew, there was someone on a boat, someone walking, someone on an ATV."

Despite these efforts, Joe says the search turned up "no evidence at all. Nothing."

And yet, he says, Kadin has to be somewhere.

"You can't just disappear. Someone has to do something to you in order to disappear like this."

Nunavut RCMP's Major Crimes Unit was called in to investigate.

In an email to Unreserved, RCMP said that the most likely cause of Kadin's disappearance was drowning after a single motor vehicle collision.

The RCMP didn't share the evidence collected during its investigation, but said it supports the theory that Kadin drowned. However, without her remains, the RCMP noted that a definitive conclusion about what happened to Kadin can't be reached. 

Joe doesn't agree with the RCMP's theory that Kadin drowned.

"If the RCMP thinks she went in the water, those boats would have found her. If the boat would not have found her, that airplane would have found her," he said.

"I personally even scuba dived in that area. If she was down in the water, I was hoping I would at least find her, but unfortunately, I couldn't find her."

He and Copland also aren't satisfied with the RCMP's investigative efforts. Joe says only two members of the Major Crimes Unit were in the community for just two or three days.

"In my opinion, they came to a conclusion way too quick without knowing the facts or knowing anything that goes on in the area," Joe said.

His suspicions grew when he recovered Kadin's cellphone in the truck after the tide went out, something he said she'd never leave.

"There definitely is foul play involved for her circumstances to be the way they are."

Kadin's family believes she was murdered and that her body was buried.

In June 2025, nearly a year after Kadin went missing, RCMP sent one police scent detection dog to the area where the truck was found.

But her family is planning another search this summer, this time with the help of three scent detection dogs from a private company. 

Copland says people in Arviat told her there was a third man in the truck that night. 

She says she informed the RCMP about this, but said "nothing was moving." So, in January 2025, she registered a complaint with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, the RCMP watchdog. 

In it, she stated her concerns about Major Crimes spending just a few days on the ground to gather evidence, and asked why a police dog hadn't been involved in the initial search. She also asked why RCMP aren't saying more about the people Kadin was with that night.  

A CPS spokesperson confirmed via email that Nunavut RCMP requested its assistance in January 2025, and said that its review of the case was completed in June 2025.

Though Copland was told the review was finished, she has yet to see it.

Chief Superintendent Kent Pike, Nunavut RCMP's commanding officer, attempted to go to Arviat from Iqaluit in February to deliver the findings of Calgary's review, but he was delayed due to a blizzard and the meeting was postponed.

Copland says a new time hasn't been confirmed yet. 

One week after Kadin disappeared, the community of Arviat gathered at The Point for a memorial.

Since then, some of her friends, like Emily Kalujak, have organized rallies calling for justice. She says a lot of people turned out to support them despite some bad weather. 

"I'm grateful for that," Kalujak said. "Grateful for my town, for the community, for coming for the justice walks. Any mom and friend, any sister, would want justice for their loved one."

Now, even though a year and a half has passed since her disappearance, there are still signs and posters throughout Arviat calling for "Justice for Kadin."

Kadin's family is offering a $30,000 reward for any information that could help solve her disappearance.

Siuqpaat Copland says they'll never give up searching for her daughter. 

"We're not doing this just for ourselves," Copland said through tears, adding that it's hard watching her other children suffer not knowing what happened to Kadin.

"They're longing for a closure. So that, I think, that's what keeps us going."

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