Burial

⚠ Information presented here is blunt and technical, intended for the BC Coroners Service.  This is the shortest possible version of the facts. There's a lot more to this story, but this is what's needed to actually locate and excavate the grave.

Victim

• 21-year-old woman of mixed European and Indigenous heritage
• 52kg, 163cm
• long brown hair
• dressed all in black:
  • black shirt
  • black skirt
  • crop black imitation-leather jacket
  • distinctive black thigh-high zip-up thigh-high boots
  • a belt made up of several heavy 4" stainless-steel rings (~8 gauge × ~4″)

Location

• Precisely 49.14502, -123.97504
• adjacent to the back of the home located at 827 Nanaimo Lakes Road (Nanaimo)
• approx. 8 to 10 feet below a 4ft² concrete slab.

Burial Method

• A deep (possibly 10 feet) hole was dug using a backhoe.
  • The backhoe arrived on a trailer towed by a pickup truck.
• The body was tossed in, fully clothed, and the hole was immediately back-filled.
• The victim may have still been breathing at the time that she was buried.

Concealment

At least two methods were used to conceal the grave:

Concrete

• Immediately after burial, a 4ft² concrete slab was poured above.

Garden

• Several months later, the concrete square was covered with soil, and a garden was planted above.

Unearthed

• Several years later, new owners unearthed the oddly-located and impractically-sized "patio", which has since been home to a wooden picnic table.
• In 2022, a full-sized patio was poured behind the home, incorporating the existing concrete square, which is clearly a different shade compared to the newly-poured area.

Recovery

Detection

• Detection of the remains using Ground Penetrating Radar or a Resistivity method requires removal of the concrete.
• The coordinates provided are precise however the exact depth is unknown.
  It may be helpful to use a Metal Detector to determine burial depth — the victim was likely buried wearing a belt made up of heavy steel (~4″) rings, and her boots had long ("thigh high") metal zippers.

Equipment

Equipment required for recovery of the remains includes:

• Concrete saw
• Jack hammer
• Mini excavator (eg., 3-ton, rubber tracks)
• Metal detector (to determine depth)