The family and friends of Delores (Dee Dee) Brown got confirmation this week that the human remains found on Norway Island were those of the Penelakut teenager.
The 18-year-old was reported missing on July 29, two days after she was last seen walking on Penelakut Island, near Chemainus. RCMP suspect foul play. The cause of death has not been determined.
It took less than a week for the body, which was found by kayakers on Aug. 19, to be identified.
But some families never get word on the fate of their missing loved ones.
A map from the B.C. Coroners Service pinpoints more than 20 cases of unidentified human remains found on and around Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. The oldest case dates to 1972 at Ganges on Salt Spring Island.
The remains are among about 180 unidentified bodies in B.C., which accounts for more than half of such cases in Canada, according to the RCMP’s Unidentified Human Remains Unit in Surrey.
There are about 2,500 missing persons in B.C., about 500 of them attributed to Vancouver Island.
