Police now now the identity of a man found dead in a Calgary homeless encampment thanks to a new DNA bank. Getty Images
A man found dead in a homeless encampment along the Nose Creek Pathway in Calgary two years ago is the first Canadian to be identified using a national DNA databank, according to police.
A cyclist found the man’s body in a tent south of 16th Avenue and west of Deerfoot Trail on Oct. 4, 2017.
The medical investigator determined that the man’s death was not suspicious, though his body had been in the tent between five and six months before being found, according to a news release from the Calgary Police Service.
Since the man’s body had been in the tent for so long, he could not be easily identified through “traditional methods” such as fingerprinting. So the police turned to other means of identification, including missing person’s reports, following leads and combing through information found on the man’s heavily damaged cellphone and SIM card — his only possessions.
“This was someone’s son, someone’s brother. Even though his death wasn’t criminal in nature, it was extremely important to the investigators that we identified him so that we could let his family know what happened to him,” said Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta with the CPS Missing Persons Unit.
By taking the man’s physical description — five feet four inches tall and between 25 and 50 years old, officers searched missing-person reports but came up empty after a year. But the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner took the search a step further by sending three DNA samples to a private laboratory to create a DNA profile for the man. It took about a year, but the profile was submitted to the National Missing Persons DNA Program.
The program is quite new, established in 2018, and works to help missing persons and unidentified remains investigations by comparing a DNA profile to the 500,000 profiles in the National DNA Data Bank. The man’s profile was compared to the databank and a hit was found last month, on Oct. 25.
While the investigation into the man’s DNA was taking place, members of the Digital Forensics Unit worked with the damaged cellphone and SIM card found in the tent. By analyzing the data recovered from the phone, officers determined the man was originally from Eastern Canada and a possible identity was determined through emails stored on the phone.
Officers had a name but they weren’t certain about the identity until a match was found through the DNA program. The DNA profile belonged to the same name found in the phone. It’s the first time the new program has successfully identified human remains in Canada.
Police notified the man’s estranged family of his death.
Kathy Murphy, manager of the National DNA Data Bank Missing Persons Unit, said the case demonstrated the value of the program in providing closure to families and linking cases that span jurisdictions.
“The more profiles we get, the greater our chances of making an identification and bringing more people home. We are pleased to be able to contribute to the successful resolution of this case, and we look forward to assisting more investigations in the future,” said Murphy.
Twitter: @BabychStephanie
