After a pair of citizens showed up at the Castlegar RCMP detachment over the weekend with what they thought were human remains, police are reminding the public to call first if they stumble upon suspicious items and to leave potential crime scenes undisturbed.
On Saturday night, two people were out for a walk in a rural area of Castlegar when they found “badly decomposed remains of what they belived were of human origin,” Cpl. Debbie Postnikoff said.
The pair then packed up the bones and rotting flesh and brought the whole package to the RCMP station on Columbia Avenue, where they turned it over to police.
The remains turned out to be those of a juvenile bear, not a human being.
Police were nevertheless concerned.
“The RCMP would like to stress to the general public, should you come across any suspicious items, such as the remains in this case, do not disturb anything and contact the police to attend to your location,” Postnikoff said.
“By moving the items yourself, you could be potentially destroying and/or contaminating a crime scene, and subjecting yourself to various health concerns associated to the handling of items, such as carcasses.”
“The stench left inside the detachment,” Postnikoff added, “was unpleasant, to say the least.”