After more than eight years since a Burnaby woman disappeared, coroners have confirmed they’ve found her body.
Monica Tam, whose birth name was Lan Ping Leung, was reported missing in February 2007 by a neighbour who grew concerned when she hadn’t seen Tam in a while. Despite calling on the public to help locate the missing 66-year-old, police were unable to find her.
According to police at the time, Tam’s family members hadn’t seen her since November of 2006.
It was in December of that same year, a lighthouse keeper with the Merry Island lighthouse, a small island west of Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast, discovered parts of a human skeleton on the island and reported them to police, according to a release from B.C. Coroners Service.
Nearly one year later, more skeletal remains were found slightly inland of the first set, according to Laurel Clegg, manager for the B.C. Coroners Service’s Identification and Disaster Response Unit.
For several years, the identity of the body remained unknown. The coroners service conducted an anthropological report, which involves a series of tests to determine things like gender and age of the remains. These tests help create a profile of the remains, which is used to determine the person’s identity.
It wasn’t until this summer, when the coroners service was notified the profile of the remains found on Merry Island fit that of a Burnaby woman who went missing eight years earlier – that woman was Tam.
A DNA test later confirmed the remains were indeed those of Tam, and at this time, the investigation is ongoing.
Because of the state of the remains it’s been difficult trying to determine cause of death, Clegg said.
“It’s quite common in British Columbia,” Clegg said. “Because you’re around so many waterways, primarily, and we also have a lot of predators, so when you do find skeletal remains, you’re not always getting the full (skeleton). So in this case, there was not enough there to make a determinant, but there was nothing there to indicate there was foul play.”
And investigators with the Burnaby RCMP agreed.
“At this time the Burnaby RCMP do not believe foul play is suspected. However, if anyone has any further information about the disappearance of Monica Tam back in 2006 please call the Burnaby RCMP Missing Person's unit at 604-294-7922,” Staff Sgt Major John Buis wrote in an email to the NOW.
Neither the Burnaby RCMP nor the B.C. Coroners Service could say how Tam’s body ended up at Merry Island.
