Body found in barrel floating in river

Phone interview with George Knight; the man who first saw the body.
*Please be advised that this podcast is unedited and includes some profanity.

(July 24) While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police already have quite a mystery concerning the human feet that have emerged along the shores of British Columbia, another Canadian waterway has just served-up another grisly find:  The body of a man found stuffed inside a barrel that had been floating down the Lee River northeast of Winnipeg.

According to a breaking news story in this afternoon’s Winnipeg Free Press, two neighbors noticed the barrel bobbing in the river Wednesday:

Two cottagers were horrified when they discovered the decomposing body of a man stuffed face-first inside a barrel floating in the Lee River on Wednesday morning.

George Knight, 69, was repairing his dock in Fisher’s Grove along the Lee River, about 90 kilometres northeast from Winnipeg, when he and neighbour Richard Marcotte noticed a barrel bobbing in the water between their two properties.

Knight said he and Marcotte rolled the barrel near the river’s edge and pried the lid off only to discover a man’s “rear-end” wrapped in a thick plastic sheet.

“I’m pulling this plastic out and I sort or lift it up and I see this guy’s rear-end,” Knight said, noting he also saw jeans and a brown belt inside the barrel. “I just said to Richard, ‘get out of the water!’ He jumped out of the water, and I ran up to his place and called 911.” 

Mr. Knight told the newspaper that the stench from the body was “terrible” and could be smelled 50-feet away.

The RCMP says it will not confirm the story, telling the Winnipeg Free Press that authorities are waiting for the result of an autopsy.

Stay tuned…


UPDATE: Body of man in barrel identified (audio interview with RCMP) 

 

 

5 thoughts on “Body found in barrel floating in river”

  1. Wow, quite a mystery! I sure hope they find out who this man was and what happened to him. I feel terrible for Mr. Knight and Mr. Marcotte. I can’t imagine finding a body–I’m sure it changes you in some ways.

  2. Hi Tami,

    Yes, it is the sort of discovery one would never forget (to include the smell).

    I found myself thinking quite a bit about this story last night. I suppose the natural assumption is that the man was killed, then put into the barrel. But what if he was alive when first stuffed and sealed inside? Doubtful. But still possible, at this point.

    No doubt, though, investigators are checking-out missing person’s reports throughout the region. Wonder if this man was married. Children?

    I’ve read speculation in comments sections within newspaper Web sites that the man was likely involved in crimes (drugs) and that his ugly fate was some sort of payback.

    I suspect we’ll learn more soon. If the man died from a gunshot, stabbing(s) or blunt force trauma, we’ll likely get the cause of death soon. However, if he died as a result of any poison or drugs, I would think it could take a few weeks for test results to come back from a lab.

    Meantime, the Winnipeg Free Press has attempted to push this story forward this morning. Here’s the latest link:
    http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/story/4204063p-4795888c.html

    Best,
    Mark

  3. Pingback: Breaking News: Barrel body identified as missing 22-year-old Winnipeg man « Beyond 90 Seconds

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