The property in the 2200 block of Salmon River Road where police have located human remains is still guarded by officers and marked with police tape for a sixth day.
Speculation and a sense of dread fill the air in Silver Creek, but few answers have been provided by the RCMP to members of the community. Police have no release the identity of the human remains found at the site and are not commenting on how long they may remain at the Silver Creek property.
Inundated with a media presence that has gone to the national news level, many residents say they are anxious but reluctant to speak to The Observer about the police presence or the property.
Five women – Caitlin Potts, Ashley Simpson, Deanna Wertz, Traci Generaux and Nicole Bell – remain missing from the North Okanagan area. Police are not saying whether any of these missing women’s cases were the impetus for the search, although some of the families, including those of Ashley Simpson and Deanna Wertz, have been told those cases were not what initiated the current police efforts in Silver Creek.
Curtis Sagmoen, a man related to the property, remains in police custody charged with threatening a woman with a firearm.
Sagmoen is known for working at the family farm and also away at various locations. Neighbours say he was working up north, possibly in northern B.C. or Alberta, but he has also been linked to a Lower Mainland community.
According to court documents, a mortgage foreclosure petition was filed by CIBC on a Maple Ridge property Curtis Sagmoen owned in 2013. The property is on Gilker Hill road. Sagmoen’s occupation is listed in the documents as a “pile driver/ bridgeman.”
In addition to the searching the SIlver Creek property at 2290 Salmon River Road, police have been searching an area around Springbend Road and Highway 97B and along the roadsides of Salmon River Road.
The RCMP have confirmed, however, a police effort involving a dog and mutiple officers in the Okanagan Avenue area of Salmon Arm is not related to their search in Silver Creek.
