Bringing Mackenzie home: Paul Trottier reflects on 1,319-day journey to recover daughter’s remains [Video]

Paul Trottier says it was the conversation he waited three-and-a-half years to have with his daughter Mackenzie.

But it wasn’t how he planned on it taking place.

Mackenzie Lee Trottier was last seen by her family on Dec. 21, 2020, catching a ride-hail from their Saskatoon home.

On Aug. 1, 2024 — 1,319 days later — searchers recovered the 22-year-old’s remains from the city’s landfill.

Paul Trottier picked up his daughter’s cremated remains from the funeral home after police finished their forensic work in early August, wrapping the container that held her ashes in a jacket and buckling her into the front seat of his Subaru.

He says he offered her a cigarette and said his piece to her.

“Three years is a long time, not talking to your child,” he said in an interview.

“There was laughter, there was sorrow, there was remorse. All those things were part of …