Two people hiking in Yellow Point made a disconcerting discovery June 5.
Two hikers were in Roberts Memorial Park in Yellow Point about 3 p.m. when they found an intact human skull wedged between two rocks on the beach below the high-tide line.
“They found the skull intact,” said Const. Gary O’Brien, Nanaimo RCMP spokesman. “The hikers did remove it and took it to higher ground, so it didn’t get washed off in the tide, and called Ladysmith RCMP because it’s in their jurisdiction.”
RCMP forensic identification members have forwarded photographs of the skull to an RCMP forensic anthropologist who will attempt to determine its age, how long it was at the site, its ethnicity. The B.C. Coroner’s Office has also been notified and was scheduled to examine the area where the skull was found on June 6. “It will probably be a coroner’s file from here on in,” O’Brien said.
“The skull did not appear to suffer any visible trauma, but we don’t know how it got there or why it’s there.”
Police are not treating the find as suspicious or criminal in nature. A report about the skull is expected next week.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call Ladysmith RCMP at 250-245-2215 or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.