Family and friends of 34 year old Robin Cocks are hoping to find closure and provide a decent burial for him.
He died 10 years ago on the Sakimay First Nation near Grenfell, but it took years before anyone knew he was dead, and they may never know how he died.
Today, an RCMP team is back on the reserve wrapping up its investigation of a very challenging case.
Amoung the searchers are family members of Robin Cocks.
His sister in law, Theresa Jamieson travelled from Ontario to the reserve in the hopes of finding closure.
“It is a very sad end to a very sad story”
Robin’s skull was found on the reserve in the spring of 2012, but it took another year and the help of DNA evidence to identify the remains.
Jamieson says her brother in law was a father, a son, a brother, and a good person whose life went bad when he got into drugs.
She says she feels his presence and believes he is at peace.
“We are here for Robin, we can feel him here.”
The RCMP’s forensic anthropologist spent more than a year on this case.
Dr. Ernie Walker says it presented a number of challenges.
Clues led investigators from B.C. to Ontario.
“We are dealing with multiple jurisdictions at opposite ends of the country, looking for someone who had not been reported missing, a veritable needle in a haystack.”
When Robin Cocks left the home on the Sakimay first nation, it was a cold fall night in 2003.
He was wearing only light clothing.
A woman who was travelling with him thought he had simply hitchhiked back to Vancouver .
RCMP believe he wandered off into the bush, became disoriented and died of exposure.
He was never reported missing so there was never a search for him.
The discovery of the skull led to this long investigation that is now coming to an end.
