With the help of some advances in forensic analysis, the B.C. Coroners Service has delivered some closure to the family of a Prince George man who went missing 24 years ago.
Brian Carman Law had not been seen since May 1989 but on Friday, the coroner said a body recovered from the Fraser River later the same year has been identified as the Prince George man.
Modern forensic analysis, in combination with the application of an enhanced identification model
developed by the Coroner Service's identification and disaster response unit ,were credited for the outcome.
A bit of good fortune also played a role, said B.C. Coroners Service idenfication specialist Bill Inkster.
"We keep data on missing persons and on unidentified human remains so that they're all associated to all, rather than one-to-one, and so we can potentially can get absolutely cold hits, which is very rare but it happened in this case," Inkster said.
DNA analysis was not in used at the time Law went missing, although Inkster said that probably would not have mattered because Law's body was found so far down river - more than 750 kilometres - it's unlikely anyone would have pursued the connection.
"In fact, this particular case has changed our thinking as far as where bodies from the Fraser River have come from, how far they can conceivably come," Inkster said. "That was spring time and that was absolutely unheard of, all the way from Prince George to Coquitlam."
According to a story run in the Prince George Citizen shortly after Law went missing, his truck was found abandoned and with the motor running in the middle of the Simon Fraser Bridge.
Police twice searched the river near the bridge but to no avail and issued a call for the public's help in finding Law.
