The B.C. Coroner’s Office is working to identify the body found Sunday offshore near Tod Island.
Kayakers called Oak Bay police around 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 5 when they discovered a body floating in the waters off Oak Bay.
While police will not speculate on the identity, and the coroner is working to identify the body, it could be that that of a young Saanich man missing since his canoe capsized near Ten Mile Point in July.
Two young men, each 20-year-old Saanich residents, launched their canoe from Telegraph Bay Cove July 6 with the intention of camping on nearby Discovery Island.
The canoe capsized and the men clung to a dry bag of camping gear. Residents of the point heard their cries for help and called police. Neither man was wearing a life jacket, and no personal floatation devices were in the canoe. One of the men was found clinging to Tod Rock near Mary Tod Island off Oak Bay at 12:25 a.m. He was plucked from the rocks with hypothermia, but released in good health from Royal Jubilee Hospital.
The second man wasn’t found despite an exhaustive two-day water and shoreline search.
Saanich police Sgt. Dean Jantzen said the men became separated in the water in the dark near Tod Rock.
“His buddy was washed up onto the rock. That’s when the second man was last seen,” Jantzen said. “It’s tragic, they were just in sight of shore.”
The coroner’s office and the Saanich police detective unit are continuing their investigations.
– with files from Natalie North
