Watch the video above: RCMP are hoping a pig carcass will help solve murder and missing person cases.
SASKATOON – After launching a 150 pound pig carcass into the North Saskatchewan River last September, RCMP have entered the second phase of their project aimed at finding missing persons.
On Wednesday, they dropped a 180 pound pig into the frigid waters of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon. Spray painted neon orange, RCMP say this swine will be more visible than the first surrogate they used.
“The whole idea of this project is to track this pig’s movements as it floats down the river,” said Cpl. Tyler Hadland with the RCMP historical case unit in Saskatoon.
The first pig was launched into the North Saskatchewan River on Sept. 3 in North Battleford. At its core, the project aims to determine just how far and how fast a body will travel before reaching its final resting point.
Pigs were chosen as ideal to mimic the human body since they have very little fur. The weight of the pig most recently launched is comparable to an average adult male.
“Currently we have six bodies that we presume have drowned in the river that we have not recovered yet,” Hadland said.
The historical case unit has been conducting annual searches of the river by boat and by plane for several years.
The second stage of this project marks another opportunity not only to learn about where bodies wind up, but the stages of decomposition they undergo.
“We have a radio transmitter as well as a GPS device attached to it, so we’ll be able to track its movements,” explained Hadland.
Gregory Myles MacIntosh, 28, went missing on Feb. 2. Police have yet to confirm whether his disappearance is connected to a report of a man who fell through the river ice early that morning.
Traces of blood were found on ice along the river’s edge and police are awaiting DNA test results. Since then, a family-initiated river search has been conducted.
Global News was given exclusive access to the official launch of the project last fall. A large swine was placed into the water with a radio transmitter and temperature gauge attached to its vertebral column.
Limbs are more likely to fall off with the onset of decomposition, making them a riskier spot to position a tracking device.
The hope was that the animal would eventually wind up at a natural collection point towards the Nipawin area. A week after it was placed in the river, RCMP found the carcass on a sand bar 20 kilometers away from where it was launched.
“We had a lot of bets on the table about how long it would take before the pig made it to the Codette Reservoir near Nipawin, but it didn’t get that far at all. It disappeared around Denholm – never to be seen again,” said Iain Phillips, an aquatic macroinvertebrate ecologist with the provincial Water Security Agency (WSA).
“Our best hypothesis is that scavengers took it away and carried the radio receiver far into the hills.”
Likely scavengers include coyotes and ravens.
Phillips will be monitoring the movements of the pig closely as well. The technology being used by RCMP is similar to what the WSA uses to track the migration patterns of sturgeon.
He told Global News there are a number of tracking stations situated along the river to maintain a grasp on where the carcass is heading next.
Frigid temperatures and the swift current on the South Saskatchewan River may have an impact on decomposition. The release of internal gases causes the animal to float, but that process may take longer to achieve now.
RCMP hope this pig will move farther than the last and plan on retrieving it in the summer.
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