Lured 3,000km from home: What happened to the missing Brampton teen | the fifth estate
Oct 30, 2026
In March 2025, Jesiah Weblong, a 15-year-old Brampton boy,
walked out his front door. He would never make it back home.
It's like, where the heck is he?
You can't just vanish off the face of the earth like that.
Jesiah is one of many Black boys lured by gangs
who are selling drugs in
remote communities across Canada.
Would you describe this as an international cartel?
Absolutely. Most of the drugs will come
from Mexico up to the U.S. and into Canada.
Typically, youth are involved at the very lower level of the network.
They're seen as disposable to the people
who are running these networks.
It took Peel Regional Police eight weeks
to issue a public alert for Josiah.
His phone was tracked to Pelican Narrow,
Saskatchewan, some 3,000 kilometers from home.
Like if they posted it out,
and then the cops would have went and picked him up.
But we didn't know until after the fact.
To his family's shock,
the RCMP never found him in the First Nations community.
How is it you have a detachment unit that is very close to the band,
but then nobody picks up these strange kids that shouldn't be there?
The Fifth Estate traveled to the Cree Nation
to look into his disappearance.
Do you think that Jay Sayo could have been in this house?
I think so, yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he must have been there.
I told him, get away from here. These are not good people.
An RCMP search team found human remains
at this sewage lagoon just outside of Pelican Narrows.
Two days later, an autopsy confirmed
the remains were those of Josiah Webb Long.
That was on May 15th, almost a year to the day since
the boy's family had last heard from him.
Josiah was laid to rest in June.
We preserve today's memory by not allowing
this to happen to another child.
Justice will be served.
Even if it's not by police.
His death ruled a homicide.
Peel Police and the RCMP refused to discuss his case.
Meanwhile, more boys like Jaysiah continue
to be recruited by the gangs.
Mark Kelly, CBC News, Toronto.

