Body not yet identified

Bridgewater Police now say it will be at least Wednesday until they can confirm whether human remains found on the bank of the LaHave River just outside town limits Saturday morning are those of Karissa Boudreau, the 12-year-old girl who has been missing for two weeks.

Sgt. John Collyer initially said he hoped to have that information Sunday. However, he now says the body has been sent to Halifax for an autopsy, scheduled for Wednesday.
 
Authorities received a 911 call around 11:35 a.m. Saturday from a passerby who discovered the remains. Officers immediately secured the area and called in an RCMP forensic identification team who remained at the scene through the night and into Sunday.
 
Highway 331 was still closed to traffic early Sunday afternoon with no word when it would reopen.
 
Sgt. Collyer would not speculate if the body was that of the missing Bridgewater girl who has been at the centre of a large-scale police investigation and search since she was last seen around 5:30 p.m. on January 27 in the Sobeys parking lot outside the Bridgewater Mall.
 
Police scoured the area twice from a helicopter without success and an RCMP dive team spent two days this past week probing the LaHave River from behind the mall as far downstream as Shipyards Landing.

Divers were back in the water Sunday morning further down the river near where the body was discovered.
 
While police refuse to say if they believe the body is Karissa, Sgt. Collyer said they believe it to be a young white female. Karissa's family was notified about the discovery on Saturday.
 
"The family has been told that human remains have been found, but at this point that's all they've been told," Sgt. Collyer said.

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