Working with their American counterparts, British Columbia Mounties say they have solved a cross-border mystery after identifying the remains of an Okanagan man first found in 2008 along a Washington state riverbank.
Keremeos, B.C.’s Miguel Joao Goncalves was reported missing by his family in 2007 at the age of 46, according to an RCMP news release.
His remains were found a year later entangled in brush along the Okanogan River (called Okanagan in Canada) near Mallot, Wash. The American medical examiner could only confirm that the remains were of a man between the ages of 20 and 50 years old and that he had a hip implant. No accurate information could be gleaned from the lot numbers written on the implant and the case went cold.
It wasn’t until March 2012, during a weekly multi-agency meeting between B.C. and Washington State law enforcement, that Osoyoos Mounties were made aware of the unsolved case.
One year later, an investigator with the BC Police Missing Persons Centre was able to crack the case after linking it to Goncalves’ South Okanagan missing person file. The investigator remembered Goncalves had hip implant surgery and obtained his medical records then forwarded them to U.S. investigators.
A forensic anthropologist was able to confirm the link, and Goncalves’ family was notified.
Foul play was not suspected in his death.
The conclusion proves that “files are never closed until solved,” RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk stated in the release.
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