For Andrea Egotik, 2026 has been an exceptionally difficult year. In January, RCMP came to her Nunavut home to deliver heart-wrenching news. Her daughter had been killed.

“I wake up crying. I go to bed crying,” she said. “I just want my honey and my Ingu.”

In Andrea’s culture, Ingu means grandchild.

In late January, the body of Andrea’s 23-year-old daughter, Ayla Egotik-Learn, was found in her St. Albert apartment.

RCMP say she’d been dead since early December.

Her remains were only discovered after a property manager, conducting an eviction, reported a suspicious package inside the unit.

But even after combing the apartment, RCMP could not find Ayla’s nine-month old daughter, Braylee.

“My honey. She was so happy to finally be a mom. My Ingu was her world,” Andrea explained.

She said her daughter moved to St. Albert in 2024, after meeting a man named Christopher Beasley at work.

The pair were employed in the kitchen of a mining camp in Goose Lake, Nvt.

The couple’s relationship had domestic abuse issues, court records indicate.

Last July, Beasley pleaded guilty to assaulting Ayla between mid-February and at the end of April. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

He was also charged twice last year with threatening to kill Ayla, but both charges were later withdrawn.

RCMP say Ayla’s death was a case of domestic violence.

Thirty-three-year-old Beasley was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and indignity to a body.

“I never thought this would ever happen,” Andrea said.

“My honey never, ever told me that Christopher beat on her.”

Andrea adds nobody reported Ayla missing, because they were getting text messages from someone pretending to be Ayla — for more than a month after RCMP say she died.

She believes Beasley was sending those messages.

“I am so mad. I didn’t know it wasn’t my honey,” she explained.

“He was asking both Ross [Ayla’s dad] and I for money, and of course, we both sent it.”

Andrea sent Global News text messages from Christmas, and as recently as Jan. 15, showing someone impersonating Ayla.

RCMP declined to provide an update on the case.

Andrea just keeps hoping they’ll call and tell her they’ve found her Ingu.

“I had my daughter cremated, and it would only be right for Braylee to be with her mom.”

She knows that’s what her daughter would want.

“I’ve also had a dream of Ayla. She was standing alone,” she said, “and she cradled her arms and then unfolded her arms. She gestured, ‘Where?’ Like she was asking, where is her baby?”

A GoFundMe has been started to help cover urn and cremation costs, as well as flights from Nunavut to Edmonton.

Finding Braylee could help provide the closure their family needs.

“I want justice for both of them… They should still be here today.”

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