Man who was with missing North Vancouver teen when she died says he met her at Lonsdale Quay

Police have revealed few details about the mysterious death of a 16-year-old North Vancouver girl at a Vancouver rooming house.

With many unanswered questions about the sudden death of a 16-year-old girl shortly after she was reported missing, CTV News has been able to piece together more details about her final hours.

The missing person report was made on the evening of Monday, Dec. 29, and the North Vancouver teen was found deceased in an East Vancouver rooming house early the following morning.

That day, Vancouver police questioned a man who rents a room in the house.

He did not answer CTV News questions when a news crew knocked on his door last week, but on Tuesday, he was more talkative when reached by phone.

“We met at the quay at the North Vancouver SeaBus,” Behdad Mahbod said when asked where he and the girl first crossed paths. “She was going to East Hastings.”

Mahbod said he and the girl both made their way to the Downtown Eastside.

He mumbled through much of the ten-minute phone conversation.

It was not exactly clear what the pair did in that neighbourhood, nor why she later accompanied him to the room he rents in the house on East Pender Street near Renfrew Street where she was eventually found.

Mahbod told CTV News that at the time he met the girl he had not slept for five or six days.

“No, we weren’t,” Mahbod said, when asked if he and the girl were drinking or doing drugs at the house.

“We were smoking cigarettes and that’s it.”

Asked if he knew the girl was only 16 years old, he said he thought she was much older than that.

“To me, she was 23 or 24 years old,” the man said. “She was 5’8” or 5’9”, and like 23 the way she spoke and handled herself.”

He said he called 911 because the girl went into medical distress on Tuesday morning, but claims he does not know how she died.

Mahbod said he has not spoken to police since the day the girl died, but claims he was co-operative with investigators at that time.

He said he provided them with pictures and videos from his mobile phone, and also allowed police to view his call history.

The police investigation remains active and ongoing, but the Vancouver Police Department has not yet said publicly if investigators believe the girl died as the result of a crime.

She has not been publicly identified.