The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has been called into Abbotsford as police look into the “suspicious death” of a 21-year-old man.
Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the death at a home in the 27700 block of 56 Avenue has not been confirmed a murder, but it is standard protocol to call IHIT to the scene when homicide is a possibility.
IHIT needs to be at the scene from the beginning, as evidence is being gathered, in case the death is confirmed as a murder, he said.
“Just enough of the circumstances are there (in this case) that we have to be prudent and investigate this as a homicide,” MacDonald said.
A friend of the 21-year-old victim called police at about 12:20 a.m. Saturday after arriving at the man’s residence and finding him dead.
Members of the patrol division, a K9 unit, the major crime unit and the forensic identification unit became involved in the investigation.
MacDonald said although the man lived with other people – not believed to be family members – no one else was in the home when the friend arrived.
He could not reveal the circumstances of the death.
MacDonald said the victim has lived in Abbotsford for about two years. His residence is located in northwest Abbotsford, not far from the Aldergrove border, just east of Baynes Road.
“Suspicious deaths” are sometimes later found to be suicides or accidental deaths.
Abbotsford has not recorded a murder since September 2010.
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