BRAGG CREEK - Some new dirt has been dug up on a decades-old missing person investigation in Bragg Creek.
For the last two days, Calgary Police Service (CPS) officers have been seen searching the ground and digging through the soil at a rural property along Highway 762, south of Bragg Creek.
In response to inquiries from Calgary media outlets about the activity, CPS issued a news release on Aug. 30 confirming the search was in relation to a historical missing persons investigation.
"At this time, there are no further updates," the release stated. "While investigators are on scene searching for possible human remains, this search continues in an exploration stage, and no discoveries have been made thus far."
At a subsequent press conference at the CPS headquarters the same day, Staff. Sgt. Sean Gregson addressed the investigation further, telling reporters the search was still in an exploration stage and no discoveries had been made as of 3 p.m. that day.
"Our missing persons investigators are coordinating a lot of the search in conjunction with our public safety unit, which is our search team," he said. "They're coordinating our search out there, and we've used resources with our K9 unit, ground-penetrating radar, and outside services.
"As it's an ongoing investigation, there's very limited detail I can provide at this time," he added, before stating the search is expected to be wrapped up in a day or two, depending on the findings.
Gregson didn't specify the time frame of the missing person case to reporters, but confirmed it "goes back a few decades."
He also said CPS doesn't believe either the current property owner or previous landowners were involved with the case, suggesting it was a "location of convenience," more than anything.
Technically, Bragg Creek is outside of CPS' jurisdiction and is policed by Cochrane RCMP. The fact Calgary police are leading the investigation indicates the case likely started in Calgary – something Gregson confirmed at Wednesday's press conference.
"We've been in contact with RCMP, but it's our information and we believe it's related to our files," he said. "They've been assisting us and we've been communicating with them, but as it's our investigation, we're contributing most of the resources for it."
When it comes to missing persons files in general, Gregson highlighted that it's important for the public to come forward if they have information they feel is credible, even in a decades-old case.
"This is a situation where we have information that has come to us we believe is reliable," he said. "We know there are families out there seeking answers. We have a duty to help bring closure to the families and see what we can do. In this case, we're looking at all the avenues we have. We believe the information is credible, so we're going to do what we can."
The CPS staff sergeant wrapped up his comments on Wednesday by stating he doesn't believe there's any risk to the public.
"This is a decades-old investigation and we're just following up some new information on an old file," he said.
