UPDATED: Murder victim is Terrace teen, police confirm
The body discovered on Wednesday, Dec. 5, in a Sahali ravine is that of a teenaged girl — and Kamloops RCMP say an autopsy shows she was murdered.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said investigators have identified the victim as a 16-year-old First Nations girl from the Terrace area. Her name has not yet been released.
The grisly discovery was made just before noon in the Guerin Creek area by a man walking his dog. Police had a large area around the site taped off well into the evening.
A lengthy forensic autopsy conducted Thursday, Dec. 6, at Royal Inland Hospital showed she met with foul play, Learned said, but police are not releasing the cause of death.
"The emerging information being gathered by the major-crime unit investigators has focused investigative attention on the 12-hour timeline preceding the discovery of the victim's body," he said, noting the girl had been in Kamloops for "an undisclosed period of time and had been in contact with associates in the community."
This is Kamloops' fourth homicide of 2012. Police also believe a woman who went missing in April, Cassandra Wilson, met with foul play, but have not yet found her body.
Learned said investigators are still looking to talk to anyone who witnessed anything suspicious in the Guerin Creek area between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 250-828-3000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
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