Police find burning body in Point Douglas parking lot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/04/2023 (1226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Police are trying to make sense of the discovery of a burning body in a Point Douglas warehouse parking lot overnight Thursday.

Winnipeg Police Service patrol officers responding to a call reporting the fire near MacDonald Avenue and Gomez Street arrived at the scene at about 1 a.m.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service personnel extinguished the flames before forensics investigators arrived.

Police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said there were no other details he could release Thursday, but added the homicide unit is investigating the incident as a suspicious death, not a slaying, at this point.

At midday Thursday, uniformed patrol police sat watch over the taped-off gravel parking lot connected to a Gomez Street warehouse that backs on to the bank of the Red River.

Forensics investigators walked through the lot with a camera and clipboard, while another sat on a small bench, examining charred debris next to a box made of wooden pallets near the middle of the lot.

The parking lot fence was lined with 22 yellow evidence markers to its back edge where stairs lead down to the river walk.

George Ducharme, a manager at Shortline Moving Solutions, said he was called into work at about 7:30 a.m. by police.

He let detectives into the warehouse, which is home to multiple tenants, to view surveillance camera footage, which he did not look at.

“As far as I know, there was a body there,” said Ducharme.

He said the company moved into the warehouse a few months ago and are in the process of renovating it.

An autopsy of the victim, whose identity hasn’t been released, is pending, police said.

Police have asked anyone with information about the incident or surveillance tape in the area to call investigators at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

erik.pindera@winnipegfreepress.com