A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to indignity to human remains, according to Vancouver police. Dustin Gastl received his sentence on Aug. 10, the Vancouver Police Department said in a statement Wednesday. Gastl was charged in connection to a 2023 homicide investigation in the city’s Downtown Eastside. The killing was the city’s first of that year, and was discovered on Jan. 3, 2023. That day, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services was called to a suspicious outdoor fire near Powell Street and Raymur Avenue. There, firefighters discovered human remains, which were later identified as those of 34-year-old Jeff Jeanty. Roughly six weeks after the discovery, police shared a suspect photo, saying they were looking for a woman in her 20s with a fair complexion, long dark hair and a height of about 5’8”. VPD spokesperson Const. Darren Wong told CTV News the woman whose photo police released was not a suspect in the indignity to human remains. She is still a suspect in the investigation of Jeanty’s death, which remains open, but police are not in a position to recommend any charges against her or anyone else at this time, Wong said. Gastl’s sentence will be served consecutively with an unrelated sentence he is currently serving, police said in their statement. They did not elaborate on what offence or offences led to that sentence. A man named Dustin Gastl was one of two people charged in connection to a home invasion that occurred in July 2023, and there are several files associated with a man by that name in B.C.’s Court Services Online system.
