Headline News

Human remains discovered at residential fire

February 11, 2025

By Bill Kilpatrick

On Feb. 4, according to a Feb. 5 press release by the Bancroft detachment of the OPP, around 8 p.m. officers responded to a house fire on Meadow Court just off of Snow Road in Bancroft. The building was fully engulfed by the time the emergency responders arrived and the homeowner was unaccounted for at the time. An investigation was immediately undertaken by the Bancroft Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal, Bancroft OPP Crime Unit and the OPP Forensic Identification Unit.

In another press release by the Bancroft detachment of the OPP on Feb. 6 revealed that human remains were found inside the residence and that the homeowner still remained unaccounted for. It was then that the Office of the Chief Coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service were called in to assist with the ongoing investigation.

The officer in charge at the Bancroft OPP detachment on Feb. 9 told Bancroft This Week that the Fire Marshall’s office should have their investigation completed by Feb. 9 and that an autopsy would be completed on the remains Monday, Feb. 10. The officer said that the OPP have cleared the scene and that their investigation would be completed pending the results of the postmortem. In a press release issued on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 11 it was confirmed the human remains located in a fire last week have been identified as the resident of the home.

In conjunction with the Office of the Fire Marshal, the Bancroft Crime Unit, and the Office of the Chief Coroner the investigation also determined that the fire was not suspicious.