Human remains found at Red Deer nature sanctuary, RCMP investigating

An RCMP epaulette is seen in Edmonton, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

A search is underway after human remains were found at a nature sanctuary in Red Deer.

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RCMP said the remains were reported at the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary on March 29. Mounties recovered them and have sent them to the Calgary Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

No other details about their discovery have been released.

Searches of the area were ongoing as of Thursday, and the Kerry Wood Nature Center posted on social media asking visitors to stay out while searchers and officers worked through the “unique challenges presented by the sanctuary’s fragile environment.”

“We are reminding people that at this time extreme care must be taken to safeguard the sanctuary’s unique spaces,” the post read.

The Gaetz Lake Sanctuary, which covers almost 122 hectares of protected land inside Red Deer city limits, is Alberta’s oldest federal migratory bird sanctuary.