Foul play not suspected after teen's body found in Ontario
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 | 2:20 PM ET
CBC News
A body found northeast of Barrie, Ont., on Wednesday is believed to be that of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp, who disappeared from his home last month after a dispute with his parents over a video game.
Brandon Crisp, 15, is shown here in an undated family photo. (Barrie Examiner/Canadian Press)A teenage male's body was found on Wednesday morning by hunters, said Sgt. Dave Goodbrand of the Barrie Police Service.
Police are not yet confirming the body is Crisp's, but it was found in the Shanty Bay area where searches have been taking place since Oct. 20.
"At this point, we believe it to be Brandon, and we're still obviously in the early stages of our investigation," Goodbrand said. "It's not confirmed, because nothing's confirmed until we have pathology, but we believe it to be Brandon."
Goodbrand said an autopsy will be conducted, but he did not speculate on what might have caused the death.
Ontario Provincial Police Const. George Silvestri said the discovery of the body does not present a safety concern for the community.
"Our indication is, at this time, no foul play [is] suspected, but of course, we have to examine every possibility," Silvestri said.
Clothing, knapsack matches, parents told
Ontario Provincial Police officers drive out of the brush near where a teen's body was found by hunters just north of Barrie, Ont., on Wednesday. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)When contacted by the CBC after the police announcement, the teen's parents, Steve and Angelika Crisp, declined to appear in an interview, but said they had been told by authorities the body had the same clothes and the same knapsack as their son was wearing on the day he disappeared, the CBC's Kas Roussy reported.
Crisp's parents had sought out all kinds of help in their desperate search, including psychics. On Wednesday morning before the discovery, they contacted the CBC's The Fifth Estate, saying they were going to investigate yet another tip: an abandoned house which turned out to be very close to where the body was found.
The Barrie police will be co-ordinating the pathology investigation with the OPP, Goodbrand said.
The teen disappeared on Oct. 13 after arguing with his parents over a favourite Xbox video game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They had taken the game away from him because they felt he had become obsessed with it and his many connections in the online gaming community.
The parents urged the police to do more to access records on their son's Xbox and online gaming accounts to try to find the teen.
Officers had been searching cornfields and the bush in the Shanty Bay-area around Barrie where Crisp was last reported seen walking on the Oro-Medonte Rail Trail with his bicycle.
Crisp was sighted twice on the day he disappeared. His bicycle was found on Oct. 20.
With files from the Canadian Press
