Searchers find body of missing Parks

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

NovaNewsNow.com



Ground search and rescue volunteers discovered the body of 19-year-old Christopher Parks Nov. 15 just before 1 p.m. in South Berwick, half-a-kilometre northeast of search command and the location of a youth party held the night he disappeared.

RCMP Constable Les Kakonyi says searchers called back to the command post with the news, and asked for RCMP to come to the scene.

"We were able to establish it was the person we were looking for," he said.

Parks was reported missing Nov. 6, after attending a party Nov. 3 on the Lawrence Road. He had left after an apparent physical altercation and was last seen walking down the road.

RCMP initially interviewied a dozen people reportedly at the party; Kakonyi said Nov. 15 that had grown to about 50 people.

Family was on-site when Parks' body was located just beyond a swamp area searchers had been assigned to walk through, and Kaknoyi said that was difficult. It was a relief for many of the 80 to 100 searchers from nine teams from around the province that they had been able to find some answers.

Now, Parks' body will be autopsied, and Kakonyi says there will be a "critical" look at any signs of trauma that "could perhaps reveal the cause of death.

"We can't rule out foul play, but it could be he did just succumb to the elements, hypothermia. It's hard to say how long the investigation will take and how much we can tell."

Whether or not the incident turns into a criminal investigation remains to be seen, Kakonyi says.

"Thinking of any charges would be premature to talk about now."