Emergency crews responded to a call around 1:22 p.m. on May 17, after the remains were found in the river. OPP Det.-Insp. Shawn Glassford said in May that it was unclear how long the girl had been in the water and whether the body may have drifted with the current from a different location. On Wednesday, four months later, he told CBC News, “these things take time,” adding that doctors in the chief pathologist’s office are doing “hard work” on the child’s autopsy. “We all want answers quickly,” Glassford said. “It’s important for the community to know that we are still investigating this case. We want to identify this child.” The child’s family has also not been identified. “We’re looking for missing children … really across Canada and the United States,” Glassford said in May, adding that tips had come in from across the province and the U.S. None of the tips have so far led to an identification. Emily Holland, a forensic anthropologist in the anthropology department at Brandon University in Manitoba, agreed that quick answers aren’t always possible in these cases. He says an “autopsy can take varying amounts of time depending on the complex nature of the case” and locating the body in the water makes finding answers more difficult. “Water complicates the whole process,” he said. “It complicates estimating time after death and complicates estimating where that person originally came from.” Officers with the OPP’s search and recovery unit were seen in the area in May, with officers in a boat, on shore and in the water combing the river. (CBC News) In May, Wasyl Luczkiw, whose family owns the Grand River Marina and Cafe in Dunnville, said police used the business’s property as a base for their investigation and used one of the marina’s boats to conduct the search. . The discovery of the body was “surprising and shocking and sad to hear that someone has lost a loved one,” Luczkiw told CBC Hamilton, adding that he hopes the family can finally find closure. Holland says there are other complications in the identification process. He says there is a challenge that would make it difficult to determine the nationality of the young girl. “If a person has been dead for a long time, if that outer layer of skin has been lost in the process of decay, you can’t rely on that to determine someone’s ancestry,” he said. “For adults you can see specific features of the skull, but that same kind of assessment is not always possible for children, particularly young children.” In a statement from the coroner’s office, spokeswoman Stephanie Rea said, “Death investigations — especially complex ones — can take many months.” “The medical examiner must be able to answer five questions to complete an inquest: the identity of the deceased, the date of death, the location of death, the medical cause of death and the manner of death,” he said. The investigation is ongoing and Glassford said he is determined to find the identity of the girls. “We’re not going to stop until we get answers,” Glassford said.
