First Nations student deaths inquest: 'I wanted closure' witness says

A First Nations student who lived in the same boarding home as Kyle Morriseau says he offered to testify at the coroner's inquest into Morriseau's death because he wanted closure — but counsel for the coroner told him, he's unlikely to get it.

William Oombash testified on Tuesday at the inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations students who died while attending high school in Thunder Bay between 2000 and 2011.

Oombash lived at the same boarding home as Kyle Morriseau and was among those last to see the 17-year-old on Oct. 26, 2009. Morriseau never returned to the boarding home. His body was pulled from the McIntyre River on Nov. 10, 2009.

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'I wanted closure for myself," Oombash said when he was thanked for his testimony. "Did they ever find out what happened to Kyle?"

"We've heard a lot of evidence and I think we all agree that no one knows how Kyle got into the river," coroner's council Karen Shea responded.

Jurors at the inquest are tasked with determining the means by which each student died. 

The coroner's office has hired someone to offer support to witnesses, including those like Oombash who testify by video conference from a remote location. Shea asked Oombash if he'd like to receive a call from the support person.

"He can call me when he has answers," Oombash said.

Earlier, Oombash had testified that Morriseau showed him a prescription pill on the night before he disappeared.

"I told him, I don't do that stuff," Oombash said, but Kyle gave him half. "He gave me a straw and it went up my nose."

Morriseau said he only had the one pill that he would need to pay for, Oombash said, adding that Morriseau appeared anxious about meeting someone that night.

'He was gone'

He watched his roommate leave the Minnesota Street boarding home, "walk to the sidewalk in the distance and he was gone," Oombash said.

That's the part he told Thunder Bay police officers who questioned him after Morriseau was reported missing, but Oombash admitted during the inquest to leaving out the part about the Percocet.

"I wasn't going to talk to a police officer about my drug use," Oombash said. 

Oombash said he was aware other students were taking part in the search for Morriseau but didn't feel up to going out to look himself.

"Nobody likes post traumatic stress from seeing a body," he said. "I was afraid to see those things."

Oombash said student support workers arranged for him to receive grief counseling and he finished his Grade 11 credits that year. He never finished high school.

Testimony about Morriseau's death is expected to conclude on Thursday. The inquest will then adjourn until January when it will examine the death of Jordan Wabasse, who died in 2011.

In February a second phase of the inquest will call experts to help the jurors form recommendations for preventing similar deaths in Thunder Bay.

The recommendations are expected in March.

Watch live streaming video from the First Nation student deaths inquest here.

Follow @cbcreporter on Twitter as she tweets from the inquest.