RCMP officers searched a remote area west of the city for evidence after bones were discovered at the side of a trail near Redwood Meadows on Thursday afternoon.
Police were called to an area south of Highway 22 and Highway 8 on Thursday at about 12:30 p.m. after someone found bones in the area while they were out for a walk.
A forensic unit attended the scene and sent the bones to the Medical Examiner’s Office for further investigation.
“There was concern that the bones might be human and in fact, I can confirm to you today that, just as of 15 minutes ago, the medical examiner has confirmed that it is human bones,” said RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters.
Canine units searched the area on Thursday afternoon and an additional search was conducted on Friday along Highway 22.
“It’s a tree area and there’s a lot of animal activity here so the bones that were found did have evidence that they had been moved around by animals so for that reason we’re trying to widen the search area out from where we search yesterday in case there are any further remains in a bigger area,” said Cpl. Peters.
Traffic on the highway was impacted for a time while police conducted the search.
“It's too soon to determine if there’s foul play involved. It’s not a normal situation, of course, to find bones outside in an area like this so that's why we are conducting this investigation, but I can't speculate at this point as to homicide or cause of death or anything like that,” said Peters.
The Medical Examiner's Office is still working to determine the age, gender and identity of the remains.
