VICTORIA -- Mounties are conducting searches Thursday in relation to a high-profile, historical missing-person case in Nanaimo.
RCMP forensic and tactical units are engaged in the operation, as are police diving teams.
The search is focused on Diver Lake, in the city’s northwest, with a secondary search underway at an apartment near the corner of Rosehill Street and Vancouver Avenue.
A resident of the apartment building told CTV News he believes the investigation has moved from a missing-person case to a homicide investigation.
James Loe says investigators in white coveralls have been combing through a ground-floor unit in the building all morning.
On Thursday, police set up tables outside the Regency Manor apartment building and interviewed residents, including Loe, as they came and went from the building.
Loe says police also cut the railing off the unit’s outdoor balcony and took it away, a detail that neighbour Ryan Webster also said he witnessed.
The Nanaimo RCMP say they believe the missing person has met with foul play.
Three residents of the residential block tell CTV News they often heard a couple arguing in the suite in question.
Police believe the missing person met with foul play.
The RCMP say residents can expect police activity at these two sites for the next two days.
Police say the search is not related to the 2002 disappearance of Lisa Marie Young.
