Investigators are working to identify skeletal remains discovered in the Gorge Waterway earlier this year and with a number of missing person cases in Greater Victoria, and on the Island, that could be no small task.
The partial remains of a human skull were found in February by recreational drivers and were initially thought to be archaeological, according to a statement from the Victoria Police Department. But the remains are now believed to be historic in nature, meaning the person died within the past 100 years.
These are only a handful of Greater Victoria’s missing person cases.
Carmen Robinson was 17 when she was last seen on Dec. 8, 1973. The View Royal teenager had finished a dishwashing shift at the Ingraham Hotel and was stepping off a bus at West Burnside and Holland Avenue. The bus stop was just two blocks from her home, but she never walked through the door.
One of Greater Victoria’s most notorious missing person cases struck fear into the hearts of parents across the province. Michael Dunahee was four years old when he disappeared from the Blanshard School playground on March 24, 1991. The case remains one of the largest missing child investigations in Canada.
Jesokah Adkens was 17 at the time of her disappearance. She shared a meal with friends in Sooke on Sept. 26, 2001 and was last seen walking alone to a nearby bus stop beside Saseenos Elementary School.
Belinda Cameron was last seen on May 11, 2005, at the Esquimalt Shoppers Drug Mart in the 800-block of Esquimalt Road. She was 42.
Emma Fillipoff was 26 when she went missing on Nov. 28, 2012. She was last seen disoriented in front of the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria.
Outside of Greater Victoria, there are even more historic missing person cases. To name a few, Duncan’s Granger Taylor left a note for family and friends on Nov. 29, 1980, telling them he was boarding a spaceship but no one has seen or heard from him since. Mo Gulmond Shah went missing on Aug. 13, 1992. The then 34-year-old went on a bike ride from Lake Cowichan towards Skutz Falls on the Cowichan River and was never seen again. Lisa Marie Young was 21 when she disappeared in Nanaimo on June 30, 2002, and Lindsey Nicholls was 14 when she was last seen on Royston Road after leaving Comox on the B.C. Day long weekend in 1993.
The B.C. Coroners Service has been running forensic tests on the skull fragment recovered from the Gorge and is working with Saanich and Victoria police to try to identify the person.
VicPD promised more information would be released when the department is able to share more.
