Calgary police find body believed to be missing 11-year-old boy, Parker | FULL

Good afternoon, everyone.Today is an incredibly difficult day.It is with profound sadness that I can confirm that we have found the body of a small child, which we believe to be Parker.For nearly two weeks, so many people woke up hoping it would be the day Parker came home.Instead, we are here sharing news that it is heartbreaking for his family and for everyone who has been carrying that hope.Want me to start over?

I'll start over.Good afternoon, everyone.Today is an incredibly difficult day.It is with profound sadness that I can confirm that we have found the body of a small child which we believe to be Parker.For nearly two weeks so many people woke up hoping it would be the day Parker came home.Instead we are here sharing news that it is heartbreaking for his family and for everyone who has been carrying that hope.

Our thoughts are with Parker's family, loved ones, friends and everyone who has been affected by this tragedy.On Tuesday, we received information from a member of the public who located evidence consistent with the clothing Parker was last known to be wearing.Search teams were deployed and as a result of those efforts, the body of a small child has been located.It is believed Parker entered into a deep culvert on the west side of Deerfoot Trail, where he travelled into a network of pipes that crossed under Deerfoot Trail.His body was found in a small pipe on the east side of Deerfoot Trail.The Calgary Fire Department required specialized equipment to enter the tunnel system as the conditions were extremely critical.

unsafe.It's believed Parker was wearing all of the clothing he was last seen wearing when he entered the tunnel system.However, his shoes likely came off at some point and washed out of the culvert at a later time.The terrain is challenging and forms part of a water environment.As with any search involving water, Environmental conditions can affect what can be observed and when evidence may become visible.While exhaustive efforts were made throughout this investigation, it is not always possible to completely eliminate every possibility within a large search area.

Just a few days ago, I spoke about seeing the very best of our city.That remains true today.As I said earlier this week, in my 35 years with the Calgary Police Service, I have never seen such dedicated, extensive and sustained search efforts.Searchers, volunteers, police officers and partner agencies committed themselves to finding Parker and bringing him home safely.Many of the people involved in this search formed a connection to Parker despite never meeting him.People from across Calgary, Alberta, Canada and around the world shared Parker's information, searched for him and held on to hope for his safe return.

I want to acknowledge the efforts of our members, partner agencies and search volunteers.Since Parker was reported missing, they worked around the clock under challenging conditions, covering vast areas of terrain, following up on thousands of pieces of information, reviewing extensive digital evidence and pursuing every avenue available to us.Today's outcome is deeply felt by those who spent countless hours looking for him.Like everyone else, we hoped for a different outcome.Throughout this investigation, Parker's family has demonstrated extraordinary strength and courage while enduring every parent's worst nightmare.On behalf of the Calgary Police Service, I want them to know they have been at the centre of every decision we have made.

We remain grateful for the trust they place in us during such an incredibly difficult time.Today we grieve alongside them and share in the profound sadness of this loss.While today's news brings an end to the search for Parker, our responsibility to his family does not end here.We remain committed to understanding as much as we can about what occurred and providing those answers to his family forever possible.We understand people will have questions and we are committed to providing as much information as we can while respecting the integrity of the investigation and the privacy of those affected.Behind every search map, every briefing, every tip and every hour spent looking was a little boy who was deeply loved by his family.

Parker's family is asking for privacy as they navigate this profound loss and we respectfully ask that request to be honored.Before I conclude, I want to thank the thousands of people who stood with Parker and his family over the past 13 days.People from across our city and around the world searched, shared information, checked their properties, put up posters, followed updates and held on to hope for Parker's safe return.The compassion shown throughout this investigation has been extraordinary and I know it has meant a great deal to Parker's family.While today is not the outcome anyone wanted,I hope Parker's family take some comfort in knowing they were not alone.

So many people cared deeply about their son and wanted to help bring him home.For that, we are sincerely grateful.We will now take questions and I have Inspector Lee Wayne here and Sergeant Rich Wall.

Where he was located, we have been in that Creek area.The clue that was located by the public pushed us into a direction where we needed to believe that it would push us into an area that needed more technical assistance.As the Chief said, the system of pipes and tunnels is like a labyrinth in there, and that's why we needed the assistance of the technical teams of the CFD and their aquatic rescue teams today.That area, the land area had all been searched, the creek had all been searched, it had been flown, and we had put canine units in there.The clue that was located, we use canine today.That caused us to move further up the creek, which then there was some other things that we located that forced us into the tunnels and the pipework system of the city in quite a large distance.

I mean, I can't comment on that because obviously there's a process now for examination, but I would suggest quite some time.Potentially, the pipe is a four -foot concrete pipe that goes into a myriad of other pipes.The labyrinths of pipes change in different diameters once you go through Deerfoot and onto the east side, and then they split up into multiple different pipes in different directions that move all the way through East Calgary.and he was located in one of those pipes.

So this wouldn't be a situation where somebody took a peek in?

Absolutely not, absolutely not, no.

This was nose peek?

No, yes.What we know is that we relocated the remains approximately 450 to 500 feet inside of the network of pipes through Deerfoot, underneath Deerfoot, onto the eastern side where they split up.The aquatic team encountered even some issues around unsafe unsafe conditions due to a buildup of gas in that area and so we transitioned to the east side and that's where we continued moving east and north and south and that's where we located the remains yes yes they do there's a number of pipes in there to go down to two and three feet yes we've been working it this morning from the clue that was located from the member of the public the dogs had indicated in that certain area and so that pushed us further east and continue to move east and then we located a number of other clues which thenforced us into the pipework system with the aquatic team.No and we believe that like the chief said that Parker entered into that pipe with all of the clothing that he was wearing and then during over the course of time some of that clothing had come out of the pipe into the creek which was then located by a member of the public last night.I haven't been speaking with the family, but I know that Inspector Wayne's team has.

In relation to the family, we've had dedicated family liaison officers with them throughout this journey, typically keeping in contact with them every few hours.We were able to, obviously, there was lots of media attention.We were able to speak with the family in advance.Appreciation to the media for holding back on some of that information.And so we have family liaison officers with the family right now who have managed to reach out to extended family and pass the message before this conference today.and myself, the team, the chief have met on a regular cadence with the family throughout, just updating them on the investigation.

But our condolences go out to them today.From the investigative side, we've been working on this from the initial outset.The core team of investigators haven't stopped.They've been at work 15, 18 hours a day for the last, is it 12 days?And so we've been able tolittle piece of hope.

And today is a somber day for the members involved, for the searchers involved, for the community, for everybody involved.It's a somber day for Calgary today, but really our thoughts are with Parker's family and friends.

The remains were located at 2 .30.I was there at the scene when they were located.Obviously, this is, like the Chief said, not the result that we wanted, but like I said on Monday, this is like a jigsaw puzzle and we needed those pieces from the public and the public responded by giving us that little piece to put us in an area that pushed us towards finding Parker.Obviously, this is not the result we wanted, we wanted to find him alive.But we are relieved, and I've been speaking to all the search teams and all the other search managers, we're relieved to be able to bring Parker home.And that's always been our goal and objective throughout this entire search.

And so, yes, we are very sad, and we are very deflated in the fact that we couldn't find him alive, but relieved that we've brought him home.

Yeah, so first of all, let's acknowledge the effort of the community.It was really part of our strategy to energize the community.to be the eyes and ears.We knew we had a focused search area that we could put resources into.But part of the strategy was, we had a community that was fully engaged and was searching in addition.That was all value added.

And that was where we were hoping to generate the tips from.And that strategy's paid dividends.Unfortunately not in the timeline that we wanted.And so, the, this the searcher involved has been searching almost every day.I spoke to her literally 30 minutes ago.I passed on the message of appreciation from the Calgary Police Service as far as her not only her search efforts but her willingness to keep that information confidential for the for the protection of the family while we worked the tip and as we said the tips and the investigation, we're going to drive the search tactics.

And that's exactly what we delivered on.We got some information that then changed the scope of our search.And then that search then led us to Parker.And so to that individual, you know who you are.Thank you.Really appreciate the work, the time, the effort.

And we have put some support in place for that individual.And our victims assistance team are ready to support Calgarians impacted.And I'm sure there'll be many people reaching out for those services.

Knowing what we know today, has foul play been ruled out for their interrogation?

Foul play was never taken off the table from my investigative team.That was always a stream of work that we considered from the outset, which is the responsible investigative strategies within a missing person case.However, all of the information that we received, and we always try and follow the evidence, was the fact that every time we saw Parker, he was alone.he was walking freely, there was no indication anybody was following him, and it would be a unique set of circumstances and coincidences that would lead to any wrongdoing or harm to Parker.However, we did do our due diligence, but based on the information that we have and the point last seen.We still have no information that leads to any element of wrongdoing, but we remain open to that.

Right now, the scene, the area of the culvert is now under the control of the chief medical examiner's office.And we will follow protocols with any death investigation where we remain open until we have results in relation to what the known cause of death was.But right now, as it stands, We are still believing that this is simply a case of misadventure with no criminality involved in it at the current time.

From the point last seen, which is Travis Crescent to where he is now, I'm just estimating here, but it's somewhere over a kilometer, way over a kilometer.Looking at where he was to where he is now, it's very evident that he walked in an area where there wasn't a lot of people and certainly no cameras, which is one of the issues that we had the whole time so yeah that trail where he went probably over a kilometre.

It is this was this was one of these great community resources this is what makes us so proud of Calgary right now is the time and effort of everybody that was involved that not only checked their residences they went and checked public spaces too and it was as a result of that due diligence of our community offering that safeset of eyes that that's where the information came from that refocused our search efforts.So this is someone who has been committed throughout this entire investigation and search for Parker and as I said I was in contact with that individual about 45 minutes ago just passing our appreciation.