The Niagara Regional police released images of a 3-D model of a face Wednesday in the hopes of identifying a man whose remains were found in the Niagara River five years ago.
The remains were found on July 21, 2013, near Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Based on the advanced state of decomposition, police say the remains were likely in the water for more than a year making it difficult to gather any details about the person.
Supt. Brian Ash says the remains were turned over to the Ontario forensic pathology service.
“The Ontario forensic pathology service conducted an anthropological analysis in order to create a biological profile of the individual,” he said, adding it led to further descriptive information.
It is estimated that the unidentified man was between 40 and 60 years old, five-feet-five-inches to five-feet-11-inches tall with African and possibly some European ancestry. He had dental fillings and there is evidence that he could have been a smoker.
OPP Const. Duncan Way says his role as a forensic artist was to create a model that captured the person’s likeness.
“This is not an easy task with so little detail about who he was, however, the task is one of objectivity and also combines some subjectivity.”
The process, he says, involves using tissue depth markers that represent the data they have collected.
Ash says 45 bodies have been recovered from the river by Niagara Regional Police over the past six years and this man is one of five that remain unidentified.
Anyone who may have information about the man depicted in the OPP facial model is asked to contact Det. Const. Sara Mummery at 905-688-4111.
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