On March 11, 1973, remains were found of someone between the ages of 11 and 20 years old in downtown Kelowna.
The individual was around 5′ to 5’3″ in height and had been dead for under year.
That’s all that’s known of the only Kelowna entry into the recently published BC Coroner’s office interactive map of unidentified human remains.
It’s the oldest of seven cases in the Okanagan and among 200 province-wide. The hope is the small markers on the map, coloured by gender, will spark someone’s memory.
“By reaching out and engaging members of the public with the launch of this innovative tool, it’s our hope to gain new investigative leads that will lead to the identification of these unidentified individuals and bring closure to their families,” chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.
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In Penticton, RCMP recently said it had been 36 years since the discovery of the youngest unidentified person on the map.
An infant had been in the water for several days and was washed ashore. There were no signs of physical trauma. Officers found no leads by investigating recent births at the Penticton hospital.
In the other unsolved file just north of Chute Lake Road in Penticton, the RCMP and BC Coroner service conducted a detailed search, as the remains had been scattered by animals. Police did not recover a complete skeleton, but did locate some personal belongings.
It was determined that the human remains had been at the scene for some time, estimated to be up to five years prior to their discovery, and could be from as early as January 1986. There was no determination of cause of death. The BC Coroner Service used a forensic pathologist and a forensic dentist, who determined the remains were a native or Caucasian male between 30 to and 60 years old. He was about 5’8″ and there were no dental fillings present, but several missing teeth were missing.
To the north, the remains of a man discovered in 1995 in the North Shuswap are also included in the list.
The remains were fouund near Squilax-Anglemont Road, about midway between the Squilax Bridge and the Adams River.
His remains were found on Dec. 3, 1995 and the post-mortem interval– the time between when he died and when he was found – was anywhere from a month to a year.
He is described as white, aged between 30 and 60 at a height ranging from 5’5″ to f5’8″.
The clothing found with his remains included South Channel brand 32-inch blue pants, size 10 brown loafers, Expo 86 pins “Guest Services” and a blue baseball cap. The police file number is 1995-2161 and the case number is: 1995-0534-0025.
There are almost 200 cases of unidentifiable human remains listed on the new interactive map, with the oldest dating back to 1953.
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