Remains found in back lane

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This article was published 02/04/2012 (5112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A gruesome discovery near a back lane Dumpster has sent a chill through a West End neighbourhood.

Police were called to an apartment building in the 700 block of Notre Dame Avenue about 10 a.m. Saturday about a garbage bag that had been seen sitting in the back lane. Police have confirmed they found a body of an adult woman and have launched a homicide investigation, but few other details have been released.

Const. Natalie Aitken said police have identified the woman and contacted her relatives. However, she said police will not release details — including her age, name, cause of death, or how long the bag had been there — at this time.

It’s the city’s eighth homicide of 2012.

“We’re in the early stages of this investigation,” Aitken said on Sunday.

Witnesses who saw the scene first-hand said it appeared body parts had been left in multiple garbage bags.

Curtis, who did not want to reveal his last name, said he saw one police cruiser parked in the area Saturday morning as he walked by with a friend to a nearby coffee shop. He said he saw a clear plastic garbage bag that’s used for renovation materials surrounded by blood. Next to it, he said there were three other garbage bags.

When he returned from the coffee shop, Curtis said there were about six police cruisers at the scene.

He said he watched as officers picked up the clear plastic bag, and it turned bright red with blood.

“I didn’t think it was a full body,” he said. “I think a torso maybe in the plastic and some limbs in the bag.”

Curtis said he was a bit shaken by what he saw, but he will likely forget about the incident in a few weeks. He said he wonders whether it could be the body of a middle-aged woman who was banging on neighbourhood doors Saturday at 3 a.m., while intoxicated.

He said the area isn’t safe and described it as a “nasty” neighbourhood.

“It was just a terrible scene,” he said.

One woman who lives in the area and did not want to be identified said the incident made her want to stay at home.

“I’m freaking out right now,” she said. “I wanted to go for a bike ride this morning but I was too scared.”

Early Sunday morning, yellow police tape cordoned off the area as forensic investigators measured the garbage bin and surveyed the back lane. Police remained on the scene until Sunday afternoon.

John Grisdale lives two doors down from the Dumpster and said he saw a bunch of plastic beside the garbage bin on Friday. Grisdale said he didn’t think much of it since he often sees old TVs, couches and other items dumped in the nearby bin.

“I saw a bunch of plastic there,” he said. “I figured, oh somebody was dumping junk again.”

Ron Elliott, who has lived in a Notre Dame apartment block for 44 years, said neighbours wondered what was in the dark bag. He said the dark garbage bag had sat behind the shipping-and-receiving door of a printing business since January.

Elliot goes for medical appointments every week and a taxi picks him up behind his apartment. He said the bag didn’t smell, but one building resident became suspicious and went to the police station to make a statement.

The woman’s body was found less than 10 hours before police began investigating the city’s ninth homicide of the year.

John Felix’s body was found just inside the fence of a house in the 200 block of Balmoral Street around 7:40 p.m. Saturday. Police have released few details about the incident.

In late February, police seized body parts belonging to Darren Robert Monias from inside a garbage bin at the corner of Smith Street and York Avenue. Emery Miles McLeod, 38, is charged with second-degree murder.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Matt Preprost