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On August 25th, 2008 Strathcona County RCMP received a call about human remains found. On September 16th Edmonton police had asked for the public's assistance in locating a missing 14-year-old boy.

On November 7th RCMP announced the remains found in Strathcona County were that of Alexander Xavier Smith.

other bodies found | missing: Alexander Xavier Smith | remains identified

Strathcona County RCMP continue to investigate the discovery of Alexander Smith's remains, found in a farmer's field northeast of Sherwood Park and south of Fort Saskatchewan.

On August 25th police received a call from a local resident who was out swathing when he came across what he believed were human bones on a property near Township Road 542 and Range Road 225.

Strathcona RCMP secured the area and a search dog was brought in, along with RCMP Major Crimes North and Forensic Identification Specialists from K Division in Edmonton.

"Yesterday at about 3:30 p.m., there was a local farmer in Strathcona County who was out working his field and noticed some bones, which he thought was suspicious. So he contacted the detachment and we attended and located some bones," Const. Wally Henry told media.

“When he went by with his tractor and swather, he looked down on the ground and saw bones.

"It was skeletal remains," he clarified, not confirming whether the skeleton was complete. No clothing was found near the site just east of Range Road 225, approximately 800 metres north of Township Road 542.

The bones were scattered over an area of unspecified size, likely due to animal activity.

"It was close to a tree line, and partially in a field," Henry said.

"Just as a normal course of action, Project KARE has been advised of the fact that human remains were found but due to the fact that it's not known – as far as any details of the remains – they're not taking an active part in the investigation at this time.

"It is being treated separately as a found human remains incident, and we're just following the normal course of investigation at this point," Henry continued.

"At this point it's not possible for us to determine the age or gender or how long the remains have been at this site. That will be up to the medical examiner to help us out with that."

The remains, which had the appearance of having been exposed for some time, were transported to the medical examiner's office after a day-long examination of the scene was completed.

The farmer who made the discovery initially declined to speak with media, requesting privacy (see below).

Other bodies found

This latest find was made in an area where the bodies of about 10 sex trade workers have been discovered over the past twenty years (see more detailed map).

The body of 19-year-old Rachel Quinney was found with her genetalia removed on June 12th, 2004 near Township Road 540 and Range Road 224, just a few kilometres southeast of the current find. Thomas Svekla was charged and subsequently acquitted in connection with her death.

"It's nerve-racking," area resident Deryle Tucker said. "We're just the dumping ground. When Svekla was captured, we were hoping that that was the end of it all.

"I think some people who live in the city their whole lives and they come just barely out into the country, they think they're in the middle of nowhere when they're dumping these bodies," Tucker said.

"But in reality, these bodies are being found just very close to all kinds of people.

"You think you would finally stop finding these bodies, but there's a lot of land out here."

On May 16th, 2006 the body of 37-year-old Bonnie Lynn Jack was discovered by a young couple walking in a field near Range Road 225 and Township Road 542, less than a kilometre south from the site of the latest found remains.

And on January 8th, 2003 the body of 30-year-old Monique Pitre was found at Township Road 540 and Range Road 222, two kilometres southeast of the current discovery. An autopsy showed there was trauma to Pitre's entire body.

Quinney, Jack and Pitre were all sex-trade workers.

Without access to a crime scene they could photograph and describe, media resorted to interviewing passersby shaken by the news that yet another body had been found in the farm and acreage-dotted landscape.

"There has been so many, there has just been so many," Janet Janzen mused.

"What else do you expect when you see something as big as this around?" she said, referring to the police presence and the possibility of another dead woman found. "That's the first thing that we think of when it happens out here."

"They've found them all over. On my brother's land over there. Yeah, it is concerning. We live here, we can't get away from it," Janzen said, sounding a bit exasperated.

"All of us that live around here just hate this. We started a Crime Watch ... what else can you do?

"It's scary, but the only thing that makes us feel safer is the people who have been killed are not from around here. They've only been dumped," Janzen said.

Marie Stang said she's worried her neighbourhood has become a killing field.

"It's upsetting to hear that it's just in the backyard that they would find more remains," she said. "It's beginning to be quite the dumping area. Hopefully – eventually, it can all come to a stop.

"This one's even that much more closer to Fort Saskatchewan, where the others have been more on down towards Highway 16 so that makes it a little bit closer to home," Marie said.

"I don't know if it is a female ... but if it is, that's not good. I don't like it too much, being close to a crime scene."

"It's a little unsettling but you live on the outskirts of a big city," Tom Stang noted. "Who knows ... it could be someone who died of natural causes."

Natural or not, for some the discovery might hamper the effort to bring in the year's crops.

"I was just about to go swath some canola, but now I don't know," said one farmer who didn't want to be identified.

Strathcona RCMP last dealt with found human remains on June 5th, 2008.

A homeowner's dog uncovered a human skull in a yard in the Belvedere Heights subdivision near Range Road 231 and Township Road 514, south of Sherwood Park.

The remains were that of a female, approximately 25 to 50 years of age, approximately 5-feet 3-inches tall, and possibly of Asian or aboriginal descent. It was noted the person had nice teeth with numerous fillings.

The Medical Examiner estimated the remains may have been there for as long as 9 to 24 months. No identification has been made in that case.

And on February 21st, 2008 the body of 21-year-old sex-trade worker Brianna Danielle Torvalson was found on an acreage driveway near Range Road 220 and Township Road 534.

Const. Wally Henry said was too early to speculate whether these other deaths were linked to the latest discovery of human remains.

"This is being treated as one incident at this point. As the investigation unfolds, if it leads investigators down one direction or another, at that point all those avenues would be explored.

"We're not going to jump to any conclusions," Henry said.

Until an autopsy can positively identify the remains, those working with women in the sex-trade also wait on word whether the body belonged to a prostitute.

"Of course we have concerns," said JoAnn McCartney, a former vice cop who now counsels sex trade workers as a member of Prostitution Awareness and Action Foundation of Edmonton (PAAFE).

"Every time a body's found, there's always concerns."

"I saw the remains straight across there on that corner by the bush," farmer Neil Galloway later told CBC Edmonton, breaking his silence.

"Well, it certainly was startling to see what appeared to be a human skull and bones within a few feet of my machine," Galloway said.

"It certainly is something I don't recommend to anybody to run across."

While the discovery of human remains indicated that violence had likely cost someone their life, one politician took issue with the cost incurred to his municipality.

Strathcona County councillor Glen Lawrence told the Edmonton Sun of the toll the body count is taking on police service in his community.

"Every time that a body is found that's a lot of manpower and energy that goes into that and then it takes away from the other workings of the municipality," Lawrence said.

"It's very costly and I hate putting a price on this because people are found dead and that's a terrible thing but it certainly stresses our resources here from an RCMP perspective."

Missing: Alexander Xavier Smith

On September 16th Edmonton police asked for the public's assistance in locating a missing 14-year-old boy.

Alexander Xavier Smith left his grandmother's residence on June 28th, 2008. He was reported missing to police by family on July 14th.

Smith was known to frequent the 118th Avenue area 34th Street in Beverly. A reported sighting of him took place in mid-to-late July on 118th Avenue.

Police said that while Smith was associated with a high-risk lifestyle, his disappearance was not considered to be suspicious.

"There's no indication that he's gone anywhere against his will," a police spokesman said.

Smith was enrolled in the public school system but had not attended for over a year.

Remains identified

On November 7th, 2008 an obituary notice appeared in the Edmonton Journal. Later in the day RCMP announced that the human remains found in Strathcona County in August were that of Smith.

Police said the circumstances of Smith's death were suspicious in that his body was found kilometres away from his last reported sighting.

"We're definitely treating it as suspicious as we do with all human remains," Strathcona County RCMP Const. Wally Henry said.

"It's better to err on the side of caution with these types of things ... that assures that no avenue of the investigation is over-looked.

"At this point we are not treating it as a homicide," Henry said.

Smith's remains had been identified through DNA testing a week prior to the November 7th announcement, but police waited to release the information to the public to allow time for the family to be notified, Henry told media.

"Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death and at this point in time we are asking that if anyone has any information in relation to this incident that they contact their local police agency," Henry said.

"Obviously it's troubling and disturbing, not only to members of the public but to the police as well and again that's why we're asking anybody that has information – no matter where they live – to contact their local police service," Henry added.

Edmonton police may be contacted at 780-423-4567, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or information can be provided online at www.tipsubmit.com

Tips can also be text messaged. In Edmonton, text TIP250 + message and send to CRIMES (274637). In Northern Alberta, text TIP205 + message and send to CRIMES (274637).

Police said Smith's body was badly decomposed when it was found. No cause of death was released.

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deadmonton 2008 - alexander xavier smith