Volunteers from the group Drag the Red, who spend time searching the Red River for human remains, are getting training from a forensic anthropologist.
Dr. Emily Holland, who works as an assistant professor in the Anthropology Department at Brandon University, lead a three hour workshop Saturday afternoon.
Holland says the goal is to teach the volunteers how to recognize remains, whether human or animal, because bone can change over time in response to environmental effects like weather and soil.
“What we really want to do, is come up with ways to help this group make this search as effective and efficient as possible,” said Holland.
During the workshop, the volunteers had the opportunity to compare human and animal remains.
“What we thought bone would look like is totally different from what they were showing us,” said Drag the Red’s Bernadette Smith. “Lots of different stages of decomposition, and when it’s on water it looks a lot different than when it’s on land, and the chances of finding it in water are less likely than land.”
In addition to offering the workshop, Holland will help searchers determine if items found in the river or on the banks are remains or not.
“They can take a photograph, they can send that photograph to me and I can say if it’s animal or human,” said Holland. “And then, if it’s human, they stop their search and they call the police.”
Holland has extensive experience as a forensic anthropologist, including time spent working on the Robert Pickton investigation in British Columbia.
Pickton was convicted of six murders, 20 charges were stayed, and six other cases against him never resulted in charges.
Holland says the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women is important to her, not only on a professional level, but also a personal one.
“Canada’s missing are, I think, everybody’s responsibility,” she said.
Many Drag the Red volunteers are actively searching for their own missing loved ones and Holland says that will impact her in a way her past work hasn’t.
“That’s a very different situation. The burden that they will carry as searchers is very different from standard search crews,” said Holland.
“Drag the Red is a double-edged sword,” said Smith, whose sister Claudette Osborne has been missing for seven years. “It’s like you want to find your loved one and bring them home but you don’t want to find them in that state. You always keep that hope that one day they’ll walk through the door and they’re still alive.”
Holland says she may offer further training to the volunteers in the future and spoke about the possibility of working with them in their boats, or on the river bank, to talk about efficient search techniques.
