RCMP find human remains on rural B.C. property

The RCMP have discovered human remains on a rural property in the Interior of British Columbia, south of Salmon Arm, a region where a number of women have gone missing in the past 19 months.

An intensive search of 2290 Salmon River Road started on Thursday and included a dog team and the use of a backhoe to dig on the residential-agricultural property. The RCMP announced the discovery of human remains late Saturday.

"The search is ongoing and will be for days," RCMP Corporal Dan Moskaluk said.

Little additional information has been released. The police said the case is "suspicious at this time." There was no detail about the human remains, such as whether it was one person or more on the Salmon River Road property, about 25 kilometres southeast of Salmon Arm.

The police also searched undeveloped land and ditches about 15 kilometres southeast of Salmon Arm. Cpl. Moskaluk said the second search was connected to the search warrant executed on Salmon River Road.

This North Okanagan region of B.C., between Salmon Arm and Vernon, has been the focus of other RCMP investigations. However, the RCMP have not made public connections between the different cases and the property search.

Caitlin Potts, a 27-year-old, disappeared from Salmon Arm on Feb. 22, 2016. On April 27, 2016, Ashley Simpson, 32, disappeared from Yankee Flats Road, which runs parallel with Salmon River Road. On July 19, 2016, Deanna Wertz, 46, also disappeared from Yankee Flats Road. Several more women have since gone missing in the region, including Nicole Bell, a 31-year-old who was last seen Sept. 2 this year in the Sicamous area, east of Salmon Arm, and was reported missing on Sept. 7.

John Simpson, Ashley's father, said in an interview on Sunday that he hadn't received new information from the police since the discovery of the human remains. For now, he is only left to wonder about the identity of the remains, and the possibility it may be more than one person.

"We're waiting to find out who – and how many, maybe," Mr. Simpson said from his home in Ontario.

He said his family still holds out hope Ashley is alive but they are bracing for the worst.

"Does it mean I have to go out West and claim my daughter?" Mr. Simpson said. "I don't know. We don't know."

On Oct. 13, the local RCMP issued a call to the public for help in an investigation and warned of possible risk to female sex workers.

The RCMP at the time described an incident in late August in which a woman was allegedly threatened by a man with a firearm in the Salmon River Road area, after the woman and man met through a website used by sex workers. The woman arrived at an agreed-upon location in her own vehicle and was then threatened, the RCMP said. She fled unharmed and reported the incident to police. A 36-year-old man was arrested but he was released without charge.

On Oct. 17, seven charges were brought against Curtis Wayne Sagmoen in a Vernon, B.C., court, according to court records. Mr. Sagmoen was born in 1980, so is either 36 or 37.

Six charges, from an offence date of Aug. 27, are: disguising face with intent to commit offence; intentionally discharge a firearm while reckless; uttering threats; careless use or storage of a firearm; pointing a firearm; possessing a weapon for dangerous purpose. The seventh charge, from an offence date of Sept. 5, is possession of a controlled substance.

Mr. Sagmoen appeared in court in Vernon – 60 kilometres south of Salmon Arm – on Oct. 17 and 18. He was denied bail and remains in custody and is due back in court on Oct. 26.

A rally in support of the missing women in the region and their families was staged in the Yankee Flats area of Salmon Arm on Sunday morning, organized by Jody Leon.

Following the disappearance of the three women in 2016, Ms. Leon has spearheaded walks and rallies to raise awareness. The violence in her traditional Indigenous land has pushed her to act.

Sunday's rally drew about 75 people. There was drumming, people spoke and a red dress, which has become a symbol of murdered and missing Indigenous women, was hung on a street sign.

"We're not going to let violence live here," Ms. Leon said in an interview. "We're going to take a stand. We want everyone to become an activist."

She said the rally was to "bring the voice of healing" and to support the anonymous woman who made the complaint to police in late August. "She's a hero," Ms. Leon said. "There are women and men rallying for what she did to stop the violence."