A body discovered in a wooded area along Rogers Creek between Glenwood Centre and Canadian Tire in Port Alberni on Thursday (July 14) was a male.
Port Alberni RCMP and the BC Coroner removed human remains from the woods behind the Alberni Valley Exhibition Grounds yesterday around 4:30 p.m. after receiving word at 1 p.m. about the remains, according to an RCMP press release. An autopsy has been scheduled but the coroner’s office has not confirmed an identity.
Gidget McLeod was out riding her bike and saw the RCMP helicopter circling over the same area for nearly half an hour. At about 4:30 p.m. a body bag was brought out of the woods behind Glenwood Centre and placed in a van, she said.
“It was right at the head of the new trail,” she said.
The RCMP helicopter also dropped several different items at a staging area on the exhibition grounds, she said.
“We have no reason to believe that the public is at risk,” RCMP Cpl. Amelia Hayden wrote in a press release.
RCMP have two separate missing persons cases on the books in Port Alberni right now, for William Patrick Charleson and for Shelly Jean Hofmann.
More to come.
