Civilian searchers located the body of missing Gods River youth Christopher Justin James in the Burntwood River July 12.
Thompson RCMP received a report at approximately 1:30 p.m. July 12 that a body had been found in the river about five kilometres east of Thompson.
The body was identified as James, 17, who had been reported missing on July 3.
The searchers as well as Thompson RCMP had been searching the river area since July 8, when a hat belonging to James was located near the Burntwood River.
James was last seen in the early morning hours of July 3 at the Mystery Lake Hotel in Thompson.
James' father, Bertie James, came to Thompson on July 3 and filed a missing persons report.
His uncle, Coun. John Ross from the Manto Sipi Cree Nation, said at the time James was reported missing that the boy was medevaced to Thompson General Hospital on July 2 due to a drug overdose, and was released from the hospital later that day. That evening he went missing from the Mystery Lake Hotel where he was with some other people from Gods River.
Ross pointed out that James is the fourth person to go missing from Gods River in recent years. Dwayne Ross has been missing since Oct. 1, 2003; Sunshine Wood has been missing since February 2004; and Conrad Hastings has been missing for the last couple of years.
An autopsy is to be conducted in Winnipeg this week. Foul play is not suspected in the death.
RCMP said the efforts of volunteer searchers, who donated countless hours, and also discovered unidentified skeletal remains in a wooded area east of Thompson July 8, were vital in the search efforts.
