At first, she thought it might be a deer.
But the bones a witness spotted Sunday afternoon in Newlands Brook in Langley City, near the Nicomekl Trail pedestrian bridge, turned out to be human.
“I guess it was around one o’clock.” recalled the witness, who asked that her name not be published.
“I was just walking across the bridge with my family. So my children and my husband, we just look over as we usually do and I noticed it first. All I could see clearly was a ribcage and some other bones near it. It was very hard to tell what it was, with the water running over it, but it was definitely a skeleton.”
They weren’t sure if it was an animal or a human.
“I was thinking maybe it was a deer,” the witness recalled.
“There was no clothing that I noticed. We just went on our walk and then, later on, when we got back [to the bridge] the police were there and it was taped off.”
On Monday, when her husband asked an officer if the remains were human they wouldn’t confirm it.
“They just said there was an investigation ongoing ‘and make make of that what you will.’”
On Tuesday, Langley RCMP issued a statement confirming the bones were human.
Police said on Sunday, May 17, around 3:52 p.m., they received a report from a member of the public who believed they had discovered human remains along a creek bed near the Nicomekl River, in the area of 53A Ave. and 206 St. in Langley.
Officers attended the location, where they located the remains and promptly notified the B.C. Coroners Service, which has since confirmed that the remains are human.
At this time, the identity of the individual is unknown due to the condition of the remains and exposure to the elements,” said Const. Meghan Marsden of the Langley RCMP.
“Our investigators are working in close partnership with the B.C. Coroners Service to determine the circumstances surrounding the death.”
For two days, Langley RCMP were on scene with the E-Division Underwater Recovery Team, conducting additional searches of the river.
I’m kind of still shocked,” the witness told the Langley Advance Times.
“It’s a trail we use all the time. It’s a bridge we go over regularly. I’ve lived in this area for over 10 years now and that’s never happened before. I’ve never seen anything like that. I just hope that if it was a missing person, there’s some closure for for the family out there.”
Anyone with information related to the investigation is asked to contact the Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200 and quote file number 2026-15130.