Police sketch aims to help in quest to identify body found in creek
Greater Sudbury Police are having a hard time identifying a body that was found in Junction Creek this spring
It's been more than three months since human remains were discovered in Sudbury's Junction Creek — and police still don't know who the man is.
On Tuesday they released a forensic sketch, along with photographs of the man's clothing in an attempt to spark someone's memory.
Ontario forensic anthropologist Kathy Gruspier said they are looking for somebody to come forward to report the man missing.
"It's a basic human right to be identified," she said.
"And everybody has a family. Everybody has somebody who loves them. Somebody's missing him. And it's very important, I think, to give names to these people."
Gruspier said the province has a team of people who are constantly trying to identify those who remain without identities.
"We're using all the tools at our disposal that we can right now," she said.
"The problem is we need to know who he is. The only way we can do that is if somebody reports him missing. So that's the piece that we're usually missing is nobody's reported them missing."
Reaching out to the 'right area'
The man is described as Aboriginal, between 30- and 48-years-old. Police say he was about 5-feet-5-inches tall, and 157 pounds, had brown eyes, and four front teeth in his upper jaw remaining.
One other distinguishing feature the man had was an old wound from an air gun — a pellet was found embedded in his chin bone.
It's the closest image investigators have to show what he might've looked like.
Greater Sudbury Police Staff Sergeant Jordan Buchanan said no one in Sudbury has recognized the picture yet, which leads him to believe the man is probably not from the area.
"It's just a matter of reaching out to the right area, where the person is from," he said.
Pieces of the puzzle
Buchanan says police have attempted to identify the man through finger prints and dental records — but so far, there has been no match.
"It sounds strange to think that, if they were a criminal, they'd be easier to identify, but that's just the fact," he continued.
"We're trying to release the pieces of the puzzle to the public because we can't fit them together, so we're hoping someone out there can fit the pieces together for us."
For now, the man's description will lie in a database of more than 280 people whose identities are also unknown in the province — at least until new information comes forward.
Gruspier said the public outreach around the case is "a reminder to people that they should go and report people missing if they are missing."
"Nobody deserves to be sitting around in a morgue or buried in an unmarked grave without their name," she added.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 705-675-9171 ext. 6632.