Identified! Canada - Burrard Inlet, BC, Scuba diver's body found, Oct'11 - Peter Devoe

[CarlK90245]

RCMP are investigating after a decomposing body wearing a wetsuit and scuba gear was found in waters near a North Vancouver park.

RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong said two fishermen came across the body Sunday morning while pulling up a crab trap in the Burrard Inlet.

He says it's evident the body has been there for some time and police couldn't immediately identify if it was a man or a woman.

Read More:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/23/bc-scuba-diver-body.html

 

[CarlK90245]

I can find two listed MP's who went missing while scuba diving in Northern Washington State or the Vancouver area:

Shari Renee Booth:

http://www.nampn.org/cases/booth_shari_renae.html

Michael Parker

http://www.nampn.org/cases/parker_michael.html

 

[swedie]

Owen Rooney went missing from Grand Forks, BC, Canada over a year ago. He originated from Australia but was in BC, Canada on a work visa/vacation I believe. Someone else who came to mind is Jodi Hendrickson (sp), from Squamish, BC. I posted a link on Owen's story. Hope LE are able to figure out who this person is. I am not sure at this point of the geographics in relation to this case but very curious, going to look it up.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...lian-owen-rooney/story-e6freuy9-1225919729353

 

[swedie]

This really creeped me out when I mapped/googled Squamish, BC where Jodi H is from and where the body was found at Burrard Inlet. Burrard Inlet is 54 kms south, same flow of water from Squamish straight down to the inlet.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

I also googled Grand Forks, BC where Owen was last seen and it just over 7 hours east of the inlet. 534 kms. Praying for positive closure on these two cases. Praying this case is solved quickly also.

 

[UncoolNegated]

Yes I wonder if it is Michael Parker. He went missing long ago but you have to wonder how much protection a wetsuit would give against decomposition.

Michael Parker

http://www.nampn.org/cases/parker_michael.html

 

[dotr]

This video shows recovery of scuba divers. VERY GRAPHIC,NOT FOR EVERYONE.
Dead Scuba Diver in the Blue Hole, Diving Accidents - YouTube

 

[Mrs. Holmes]

I hope it is one of the two missing divers. It did occur to me to wonder if this was related to all those feet in shoes showing up in the Vancouver waters. It could be a serial killer. One of the feet was identified to be a missing man.... and he was someone with drug problems etc... I wonder if the missing feet people are homeless people.. and they can go missing and no one even notices or reports it... This guy had a family that reported. The rest? No one seems to have reported them missing.

It creeped me out to think a serial killer might up the ante after being ignored and esculate from floating a body part in a shoe... to stuffing whole dead bodies in wet suits to float out into the water.. whenever they wanted attention.

CREEPY

 

[dotr]

I hope it is one of the two missing divers. It did occur to me to wonder if this was related to all those feet in shoes showing up in the Vancouver waters. It could be a serial killer. One of the feet was identified to be a missing man.... and he was someone with drug problems etc... I wonder if the missing feet people are homeless people.. and they can go missing and no one even notices or reports it... This guy had a family that reported. The rest? No one seems to have reported them missing.

It creeped me out to think a serial killer might up the ante after being ignored and esculate from floating a body part in a shoe... to stuffing whole dead bodies in wet suits to float out into the water.. whenever they wanted attention.

CREEPY

Some of these recent ones have been id'd.
"Two feet encased in sneakers that washed ashore separately in Richmond in 2008 belonged to a New Westminster woman who committed suicide by jumping from the Pattulo Bridge into the Fraser River in April 2004, a B.C. Coroner said on Wednesday.

Coroner Stephen Fonseca said that autopsies showed her feet became separated through natural decomposition that occurs in water.

Experts say the process generally explains why severed feet, which are preserved and float in sneakers, are found washed up on the coast.

Between August 2007 and August 2011 eight feet belonging to six individuals were discovered on B.C.'s coast.

No evidence indicates that any of the deaths are suspicious.

The B.C. Coroners Service has identified six of the feet as belonging to four individuals".


Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Fee...icide+victim/5579100/story.html#ixzz1bojuGsPx

 

[dotr]

Coroner Owen Court says two things are clear at this point: the body was underwater for a long time and this case is extremely rare.

"In my experience as a coroner, I do not recall recovering the remains of a diver that had been submerged for such a long time," Court says.
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/291818--autopsy-scheduled-for-dead-scuba-diver

 

[CarlK90245]

This UCBC Website contains reports of diving fatalities in the waters of British Columbia:

http://www3.telus.net/smeixner/ucbc/accreports.htm

The reports describe in detail the circumstances of the fatalities, and recommendations for avoiding similar incidents in the future. The names of the victims or the exact locations of the incidents are not provided.

The 1985 - 1999 report contains five incidents where the victims' bodies were not recovered.
http://www3.telus.net/smeixner/ucbc/reports/fatal85-99.pdf

The 2009 and 2010 don't contain any incidents involving unrecovered bodies. There are no reports for the period between 2000 and 2008.

 

[dotr]

“Right now the autopsy is really inconclusive in identifying the body but there’s a few things that may develop in the next day or so,” De Jong told The Outlook. “But because of the decomposition of the body and the time it’s been under, we’re not making a lot of headway in determining cause of death and those sorts of things.”
For now, the Mounties are reaching out to the local scuba diving community to shed some light on the diver’s identity.
“We’re asking them to think back. It could be a visitor who’s new to the area and went diving by themselves,” De Jong said. “We just don’t know.”
http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/sports/132634793.html



He added that the Mounties are not aware of any divers missing in recent months but said they have received credible phone and email tips since the diver’s discovery which they are following up on

 

[dotr]

Police say a body found in Burrard Inlet on Sunday dressed in scuba diving gear may be a missing man from Washington state.

A badly decomposed body was pulled from the water after becoming entangled in a fishing net.

Police believe the body may be of 40-year-old Michael Scherner of Bellingham, WA. He went missing in August 2009 when he failed to resurface on a dive with a friend.


Read it on Global News: Global BC | Body pulled from Burrard Inlet may be of scuba diver missing since 2009
http://www.globaltvbc.com/body+pull...iver+missing+since+2009/6442509572/story.html

 

[dotr]

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/...-diver-from-burrard-inlet-be-michael-scherner
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - While the identity of a scuba diver pulled from the Burrard Inlet remains a mystery, there is an unsolved diving case out of Orcas Island dating back to 2009.

A 40-year-old Bellingham man went diving with a friend one August afternoon and never resurfaced. His name is Michael Scherner, described as a very experienced former navy diver. Although North Vancouver RCMP still don't know if the body they are dealing with is a man or a woman, they say it has been in the water for months or even years.

If it is the Bellingham man it would mean closure for Maria Laing who now lives in North West Ohio. "It would be nice if that was the case, it would be good to know...to be able to bury him."

Sherner was an experienced former navy diver and it is his mother's understanding that he went out one day with a group of people but

decided to stay back after everyone left and never resurfaced.
Mounties and the San Juan County Sheriff's Office are now comparing notes, says Sheriff Rob Nou. "We kind of shared some of the information as far as equipment and things that our victim was wearing when he went missing. [That] may help them identify the remains discovered."
Comment from missing diver's mom, ML near bottom of diving thread.
http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9195#p110727

 

[dotr]

A bit more news!
http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/296984--body-of-scuba-diver-close-to-being-identified
BURNABY (NEWS1130) - The BC Coroners Services thinks it has identified a scuba diver whose body was found in the Burrard Inlet last month. But DNA analysis will have to be used to come to a final conclusion.

Coroner Stephen Fonseca says they are making good progress and they have advised the family of the person they are considering.

"We don't want to be relaying just on the circumstantial evidence but we do have somebody in mind. The individual does show a number of consistencies to where the remains were found, and some of the circumstances [like] the outfit and the post-mortem interval

 

[Cubby]

A 26-year mystery has ended with the identification of the remains of a “strong, athletic” paraplegic man who went missing in 1985 while diving in Cates Park.

Peter Devoe, who was 29 at the time, was diving with his brother when he experienced problems with his equipment and failed to resurface.

Emergency personnel were called and an extensive search launched, but no trace of Devoe was found until commercial fishers on Oct. 23, 2011, found human remains entangled in scuba diving gear when they pulled up their nets.​

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Remains+found+paraplegic+scuba+diver+disappeared+1985/5826184/story.html#ixzz1fsuYSGjh​

 

[Angie4b1g]

Oh my gosh 1985!

 

[dotr]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/12/07/19092161.html
Kathy Newman, executive director of the B.C. Wheelchair Sports Association, recalled her first meeting with the athlete three decades ago.

“He was like a role model for other people that wanted to get involved in wheelchair sports,” she said, adding Devoe was admired for his endless support to sports for youth with disabilities.

“That’s why we decided naming the Peter Devoe Memorial Award after him,” Newman said of the scholarship fund that was established the same year Devoe went missing.

“He was a fantastic person.”

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Glad he's ID'd. Wow, that was a suprise! 1985....