BRIDGEWATER - Bridgewater Police say it will likely be at least Wednesday until they can confirm if a body found on the bank of the LaHave River on Saturday is Karissa Boudreau, the 12-year-old girl who has been missing for two weeks.

 Authorities received a 911 call around 11:35 a.m. Saturday from a passerby who discovered the snow-covered body on the riverbank below the parking lot at the former Irving Oil bulk plant in Conquerall Bank.

 Police immediately secured the area and called in an RCMP forensic identification team who remained at the scene through the night and into Sunday.

 Security in the area remained tight, with police tape blocking off a large area. A section of Highway 331 was closed to traffic until about 3 p.m. Sunday.

 Police initially indicated they'd release the person's identity Sunday. However, by that morning they were unable to do so. RCMP spokesman Cst. Grant Webber said the remains were removed around 10 p.m. Saturday and taken to Halifax where an autopsy will be performed. That is scheduled for Wednesday.

 Until then, officials will only say that the body is believed to be that of a young, white female.

 While investigators won't say if they believe it is Karissa, Sgt. John Collyer of the Bridgewater Police Service said there are no other missing person reports in the area and her 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," he said.

 "Obviously they're very upset, trying to remain hopeful, but very upset," he added.

 Karissa was last seen in the Bridgewater Mall parking lot near Sobeys around5:30 p.m. on January 27. She chose to wait in the car while her mother went inside to buy a few items. When her mom returned 10 or 15 minutes later, Karissa was gone.

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 Police and Karissa's family initially believed the 12 year old had run away. When she failed to turn up, the search expanded with her mother issuing two public pleas days apart for her to make contact. Officers conducted two air searches from a Natural Resources helicopter without success. RCMP divers spent two days last week probing the LaHave River behind the Bridgewater Mall as far downstream as Shipyards Landing.

 Divers were back in the water Sunday morning closer to where the body was discovered. Police would not say what they were doing or if they believe foul play was involved in the person's death.

 "It's an ongoing criminal investigation at this time and, obviously, there are some details we can't go into," Sgt. Collyer said.

 Bridgewater Police and the RCMP are sharing the investigation since the body was found just outside town limits. A police dog team was also called to the scene, and the RCMP's major crime unit and the integrated street crime unit are also assisting.

 Sandra Mailman, who lives almost across the street from where the body was found, said she initially wasn't certain what was going on when she and her husband returned home at lunchtime Saturday and found police officers doing something across the street.

 "It looked like it was up on the bank, maybe a third of the way up," she said. "It wasn't in the water. It wasn't on the shore of the water. It was up higher on the bank."

 Later, police officers came to their house and asked if they'd seen or heard anything unusual. While they often hear voices from along the roadside and river, she said they couldn't recall anything out of the ordinary lately.

 "It's sort of like an area where people will park. In the summertime we hear people fighting all the time. It's a normal thing that happens with living on the river," Ms Mailman said.

 Ms Mailman admits it's disturbing to think that, if it is Karissa's body, she may have been there for days.

 "When that helicopter was going up and down the first time, there were cars parked up in the Irving Oil parking lot watching that helicopter," she said. "If that body was there and nobody looked down over the bank … ."

posted on 02/12/08